NANKEEN KESTREL. 
Mb. Caley of Parramatta, New South Wales, must come first in the list of 
Australian field ornithologists as the first memorable essay on Australian 
Ornithology by Vigors and Horsfield in the Transactions of the Linnean Society 
of London, Vol. XV., 1827, was based on his collections donated to that 
Society. Further, it must not be forgotten that the collections were only 
half worked out. 
The present species is one of his discoveries and the note accompanying 
the description (p. 184) reads : 
“ This bird, as we are informed by Mr. Caley, is called Nankeen Hawk 
by the settlers. It is a migratory species. My specimens were shot in May 
and June 1803. At that time the species was plentiful, but ever afterwards 
I observed it but sparingly. On the 3rd of August, 1804, I made the following 
note : ‘ I saw no Nankeen Haivks this autumn. I never observed it attacking 
the fowls.’ 
“ The species is closely allied to a group which is noted for the general 
similarity and the corresponding disposition of its colours, and which 
includes our Kestril, F. tinnunculus Linn, the of Aristotle ; the 
newly-characterised European species F. tinnunculoides Temm. ; the African 
species F. rupicolus Daud. ; and some others. The group may be observed to 
possess a greater shortness of wing than is usual among the true Falcons, 
a character which points out the passage from those birds to the Hawks. 
Our species appears decidedly distinct from any of the group which we have 
met with.” 
I wonder whether these were the same specimens described by Latham in 
the General History of Birds, Vol. I., p. 225, 1821, under the name Parametta 
Falcon, as follows : 
“ Size of a Merlin, and somewhat like that bird. Bill small, black, 
irides yellow ; plumage above fine brown, the feathers margined with rufous ; 
chin, throat and breast, blotched brown and white ; belly and thighs dusky 
white, barred with rufous ; inner webs barred with a pale colour ; tail'^even 
at the end, crossed with twelve or fourteen pale clay-coloured bars, rather 
obscure, except on the inner webs, where they are more conspicuous ; wings 
long, reaching near to the end of the tail ; legs slender, long, yellow, claws 
black ; feathers of the thigh long, reaching halfway on the shins. 
“ Inhabits New South Wales. 
“ A. — Length 15 in. Bill black ; cere yellow ; plumage above brownish 
ash colour ; beneath wholly white ; quills and tail darker than the rest of 
the plumage ; tail eight inches long, crossed with twelve or fourteen obsolete 
dusky bars ; quills the same, but the bars only on the inner webs ; legs 
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