THE KESTRIL. 
217 
plumage bright chestnut^ with a few minute streaks of black on the breast 
and abdomen and a round spot or two on the thighs ; under wing-coverts 
chestnut variegated with black ; tail slaty black, the centre feathers obso- 
letely barred with dark grey and the others barred with rufous on the 
inner webs ; quills dark brown, barred with rufous on the inner webs. 
The streaks on the breast are lost when the bird is fully mature. 
Cere, orbital skin and legs reddish yellow ; bill plumbeous. {Jerdon.) 
Length about 11 inches, tail 4*5, wing 8-5, tarsus 1-15. The female is 
considerably larger. 
The Indian Hobby is stated by Mr. Blyth to occur in Tenasserim. 
Looking to its distribution it is extremely likely to be found also in Pegu 
and Arrakan. 
It is met with in the Himalayas as far as Kumaon and in Bengal. 
Major Legge includes it in the birds of Ceylon, and it ranges down the 
Malay peninsula to Java, extending to Borneo, the Philippines, Celebes 
and New Guinea. 
There is comparatively little known about this Hobby. 
Genus TINNUNCULUS, Vieill, 
589. TINNUNCULUS ALAUDARIUS. 
THE KESTRIL. 
Falco tinnunculus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 127 Dresser, Birds Eur. vi. p. 118, pi. ; 
David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 36 ; Seebohm, B. Birds., i. p. 45. Falco alauda- 
rius, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 279. Tinnunculus saturatus, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 
xxviii. p. 277 ; Hume, S. F. v. p. 129. Tinnunculus alaudarius, Jerd. B. Jnd. 
i. p. 38 ; Hume, Bough Notes, i. p. 96 ; id. Nests and Eggs, p. 21 ; id. S. F. iii. 
p. 22 ; Bl. 8f Wald. B. Burm. p. 59 ; Wardlaw Ramsay, Ibis, 1877, p. 453 ; 
Gurney, Ibis, 1881, p. 456. Cerchneis tinnuncula, Sharps, Cat. Birds B. Mus. 
i. p. 425 ; Hume Sf Dav. S. F. vi. p. 3 ; Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 114 ; Hume, S. F. 
viii. p. 81 ; Scully, S. F. viii. p. 223 ; Oates, S. F. x. p. 178. Falco saturatus, 
Anders. Yunnan Exyed. p. 570. Cerchneis saturata, Hume Dav. S. F. vi. 
p. 3. 
Description. — Adult male. Forehead yellowish; head dark bluish ash, 
with black shaft-lines ; wing-coverts, back and scapulars brick-red, with 
triangular black spots ; upper tail-coverts and tail bluish ash, the former 
with obsolete black shaft-lines and the latter with a broad band of black 
across the end and tipped white ; quills dark brown, notched with white on 
the inner webs, tipped and partially edged narrowly with white ; sides of 
the head with a moustache blackish ; chin and throat white ; whole under 
