266 SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



be gleaned from his accurate and masterly descriptions ; the sync 

 nyms of the species in the English, Latin, French, Italian, and 

 German languages ; and occasional remarks on the new systems of 

 ornithological arrangement and nomenclature, as proposed by mo- 

 dern writers, and, more especially, by an able, but anonymous, con- 

 tributor to The Analyst ; whose labours adorn our last and present 

 numbers. The luminous descriptions of Temminck, and the icono- 

 graphical productions of Selby, Werner, Meyer, and other of the 

 more successful and celebrated delineators of the bird-class will also 

 frequently be referred to. 



First Part. — Plate I. — Presents a figure of the Lesser Kestrel, 

 -^-Falco Tinnunculoides, — Faucon Cresserellette, Fr, — Falco di terre 

 diverso. It., — distinguished from the common European species, F. 

 tinmmculus, by 1st. the extension of the wing to the extremity of the 

 tail; 2d. absence of spots from the superior part of the plumage ; 3d. 

 perfect whiteness of the claws ; and 4th. marked and constant irferi- 

 ority of size. The adult female, somewhat larger than the male, so 

 closely resembles the female of F. tinnunculuSy as only to be distin- 

 guishable by attention to the frstj third, and fourth points of spe- 

 cific difference, above traced. She lays four eggs ; differing little, 

 in size and colour, from those of the common Kestrel. F. tinnuncu- 

 loides inhabits the southern and eastern regions of Europe, and 

 preys upon the smaller mammifera and birds, but principally upon 

 the larger species of coleopterous and hymen opt erous insects, which 

 it captures, with almost unerring precision of aim, upon the wing. 

 No specimen of it has as yet been recorded as taken or seen in the 

 British islands. The propriety of constituting a new genus which, 

 with the two Kestrels, shall include F. rupicolus ; F. spervarius, — 

 for an excellent figure and description of which, see Fauna BorealL 

 Americana, vol. ii., pi. 24, page 31 ; and '^ several other species, of 

 America and its adjacent islands," is cursorily adverted to by Mr. 

 Gould. His figure of our present subject is adm.irably drawn and 

 coloured. Werner's corresponding plate, given in the second LivraL 

 son of the Atlas des Oiseaux d' Europe, will not, for one moment, 

 sustain comparison with it. Might not a more eligible specific de- 

 signation than tinnunculoides be conferred upon this species ; distin- 

 guished as it is, from its most nearly-allied congener, by greater 



