36 Mr. J. H. Gurney on the Kestrel of Madagascar. 
rump is bluish grey, with a darker sagittate mark on each 
feather. The upper side of the tail is of a blackish-brown tint, 
with seven lighter transverse bars; these are grey towards the 
upper part of the tail, but tinged with rufous towards the lower 
part. The cheeks and throat are white, with the exception of 
an indistinctly defined dark moustache extending downwards and 
backwards from the angle of the mouth. All the under parts 
are also white, with the exception of a slight rufous tinge on 
the breast, and of dark lanceolate shaft-marks on the feathers 
of that part and of the inside of the wing near the carpal joint. 
The feathers on the inside of the wing, covering the roots of 
the primaries, show these marks in a more ovate form, which 
also appears on the feathers of the abdomen. 
Specimen B differs from A in the rufous colour of the back 
being paler and duller, apparently from the action upon the 
feathers of the sun and weather, also in the sagittate marks on 
the rump being more sparsely distributed, in all the light trans¬ 
verse bars of the tail being grey, in the cheeks being of the 
same colour as the upper part of the head, in the ground-colour 
of the breast, abdomen, flanks, and outer sides of the thighs 
being of a dark rufous, and in the darker ovate spots being 
spread over the thighs and under tail-coverts. 
The accompanying Plate, by Mr. Wolf, in which the upper 
figure represents specimen B, and the two lower figures speci¬ 
men A in two attitudes, all reduced to one-third of their natural 
dimensions, will probably give a clearer idea than any more 
detailed description of the Madagascar Kestrel. They may be 
compared with the figure of T. gracilis in DesMuiVs ( Icono- 
graphie Ornithologique/ pi. 25, and with that of T. punctatus 
in Temmincfs ‘Planches Coloriees/ pi. 45. 
Should the readers of e The Ibis J agree with me in consider¬ 
ing the Kestrel of Madagascar a distinct species, I am sure they 
will also agree in the propriety of distinguishing it by the name 
of the naturalist by whom the specimens now described were 
collected, and of adopting for it the specific designation of T. 
newtoni. 
In conclusion, I beg leave to add a list of the species of 
Kestrels which I have had the opportunity of personally ex- 
