110 RUFOUS KESTREL FALCON. 
General colour of the plumage cinereous or light 
rufous, much paler beneath ; cere, bright yellow ; 
bill, blue. Head, neck, and their sides, marked 
with narrow stripes, one being down the shaft of 
each feather, but none on the chin, and scarcely 
any on the ears. The whole of the back, rump, 
tail, wing-covers, and tertials are marked with 
transverse bands of brownish-black, at nearly equal 
distances from each other ; of these, there are 
generally three on each feather, one in the middle, 
and one at each end. The terminal band is broadish, 
and that at the base is obsolete on the smaller 
feathers. The long tertials and the larger covers 
have four bands, those on the latter being of equal 
breadth, and equal distance from each other. The 
middle tail-feathers have from nine to ten of these 
bands, which run directly across the two webs 
towards the end of the feathers, but become alternate 
at the base ; besides these, there is a terminal band 
nearly an inch broad, and which leaves the extreme 
tip, or margin, dull whitish. The spurious quills 
are dark brown, with four external spots of ferru- 
ginous; the lesser quills the same, but -with five 
spots, opposite to each of which, on the inner web 
only, is a transverse spot of the same colour. The 
greater quills have the whole of their outer webs 
entirely brown. It is by this peculiar character 
that the species is distinguished, for in the Javanese 
bird the greater quills have five distinct spots on 
their outer webs. The inner webs of our bird are 
marked with the indented bands, usual in the 
