6 4 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA.
Mr. Ayres gives the cere yellow ; tarsi arid feet, dull yellow; iris,
tawny yellow.
Fig. Smith, 111. Zool.'S. Afr. pi. xcii.
5 8 . C e r c h n e is naum an n i. Lesser Kestrel.
Tinnunculus cenchris, Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 22 (1867).
Mr. Andersson says that this species is “ rather scarce in Damara
Land, and only makes its appearance during the rainy season.” It
occasionally strays into the colony, following the locust swarms.
On one of these occasions the pair now in the Oape Museum were
obtained by Mr. Cairncross, of Swellendam, in 1860. He informed
us that they were feeding on the locusts, and after gorging themselves,
perched on the summits of high trees, from which they were
easily shot. On the 7th January, 1870, Mr. Cairncross wrote “ over
the street (Swellendam), I to-day counted thirty-four of the little
Kestrel drifting along westward about 200 feet over head. Locusts
are plentiful this year.” Dr. Exton writes, “ North of Sechele’s I
shot a pair of G. naumanni out of a flock from which I also obtained
G. rupicola. They were harrying a flight of locusts, taking them on the
wing, striking them with their feet and then carrying them to their
bills.” Mr. T. E. Buckley, during his journey to the Matabili, shot
a young male on the Limpopo River, on the 14th of November, 1873.
' Adult male.—Head, shoulders, and tail ash-coloured; back rufous;
under parts vinaceous, more or less spotted with dark-brown; throat
and chin white ; wing-feathers brown-black; tail tipped with white,
and crossed at the end with a broad bar of black; legs and cere
yellow; iris yellow brown. Length, 12” ; wing, 9lf' ; tail, 6J” .
Adult female.—Dissimilar to the male. Above tawny rufous,
transversely crossed by bars of blackish brown, narrower and more
obscure on the lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts, the latter
of which are strongly inclined to grey; tail rufous, barred with
black, tipped with whitish, before which a broad subterminal band
of black; head and neck rather pale rufous, the former broadly,
the latter more narrowly, streaked with blackish shaft-stripes; forehead
and a distinct eyebrow whitish, cheeks and ear-coverts silvery
white, with narrow shaft-lines of black; primaries dark brown,
barred on the inner web with rufous, secondaries coloured like the
back, the outer ones narrowly margined with white at the tip;
throat, vent, and under tail-coverts fulvous white, unspotted; breast
CERCHNEIS VERPERTINtlS. 65
inclining to rufous fawn-colour, all the feathers mesially streaked
with blackish, these stripes being broader on the flanks, and very
tiny on the thighs, which are also paler rufous. Total length,
12-5 inches; culmen, 0-7; wing, 9*3; tail, 5-9; tarsus, 1-2. (Sharpe
Cat. B. i. p. 436.)
Young male.—Like the old female, but somewhat paler rufous.
The blue tail is assumed by a moult, the blue head being, on the
other hand, gained by a change of feather. Birds in intermediate
stages are often thus seen. (id. t. c. p. 437.)
Fig. Sharpe and Dresser, B. Eur. part 3.
59. Ce r c h n e is v e r f e r t in a . Red-footed Kestrel.
Although it has not yet been found within the limits of the colony,
this species nevertheless visits certain portions of South Africa,
along with the other insect-eating Falcons. According to Mr.
Andersson it “ usually arrives in Damara and Great Nainaqua Land
about the rainy season, and again retires northward on the approach
of the dry season; they arrive in enormous flocks of many thousand
individuals.” Mr. Andersson also killed the species in Ovampo
Land, and Senor Anchieta obtained numerous specimens at Huilla, in
18 6 8 .
The following description is extracted from the f Catalogue of
Birds/ (I, p. 444).
Adult male.—Above leaden grey, a little paler on the wing-coverts,
the greater series of which are conspicuously silvery-grey; primary-
coverts and quills silvery-grey, the secondaries darker and approaching
the colour of the back; tail brownish black; under surface
blueish grey with faint indications of blackish shaft-stripes; lower
abdomen, vent, under tail-coverts and thighs rich chestnut; under
wmg coverts leaden grey ; inner lining of wing brownish black;
cere, orbits and feet bright brownish red ; claws yellowish white,
horn coloured at points; bill yellowish horn colour, blackish at tip ;
ms light brown, (according to Andersson “ durlc brown ” ). Total
length, 11-5 inches; culmen, 0*75; wing, 9 * 8 ; tail, 5*6; tarsus,
1'15.
Adult female.—different fr.otn the male. Above blueish grey,
with transverse black bars on all the feathers, the interscapulary
region a little darker and more ashy; tail also blueish grey, with
narrow black bars, the subterminal one much broader, the tip a little
F '