NON-INDIGENOUS BRITISH BIRDS. 131 



Family FALCONIDiE. Genus Falco. 



Sub-family FALCONINyE. 



LESSER KESTREL. 



Falco cenchris, Naumann. 



(British : Very rare abnormal spring and autumn migrant.) 



Single Brooded. Laying season, end of April and in May. 



. Breeding area: South-western Palaearctic and 

 North-eastern Ethiopian region. The Lesser Kestrel 

 breeds in the Spanish Peninsula, in Sardinia and Sicily, 

 in Southern Austria, in Turkey and Greece, and in the 

 extreme south of Russia. Eastwards it breeds in Asia 

 Minor, Palestine, the Caucasus, Persia, and Western 

 Turkestan. South of the Mediterranean it breeds in 

 Northern Africa from Morocco to Egypt. 



Breeding habits : The Lesser Kestrel is a bird of 

 passage, and reaches its breeding grounds from its 

 winter quarters in Southern Africa during the last half 

 of March. No raptorial bird is more gregarious, per- 

 haps, than the Lesser Kestrel ; it migrates in flocks, and 

 breeds in colonies of varying size. Its favourite breeding 

 haunts are the vicinity of ruins and rocky country 

 fairly well timbered. It is also extremely partial to 

 villages and small towns. It is probable that this 

 Kestrel pairs for life, and returns season by season to the 

 same nesting places. Like its ally the Common Kestrel, 

 it never makes a nest for itself, but selects some hole in 

 a rock, a building, or a tree. The bird is very partial to 

 holes in ruins, church towers, and even the eaves of 

 houses. Colonies of this species have been observed 

 even in the streets of a town under the eaves ; a deserted 

 nest in a tree is sometimes selected. The eggs are laid 

 in slight hollows, and are generally surrounded with 



