106 FAUNA AND FLORA OF PALESTINE. 



220. Falco (csalon. Tunstall. Ornith. Brit., p. i. The Merlin. 



This northern bird visits Palestine in winter. I have found it 

 occasionally in all parts of the country as late as the middle of March. 



The Merlin breeds in Northern Europe and Asia, and in winter 

 extends its visits as far as North Africa and China. 



221. Falco vespei'tinus. Linn. Syst. Nat. i., p. 129. Red-legged 

 Hobby. 



A summer visitant, returning earlier than the Hobby, but scarce, 

 there being few woods suited to its habits. Its food is beetles and locusts. 



It is a native of South-eastern Europe, and is found throughout 

 Africa, hut not further in Asia than its westernmost countries, Asia 

 Minor and Syria. 



222. Falco tiiuninculns. Linn. Syst. Nat. i., p. 127. Kestrel. 

 Heb. p. {generic for all small hawks). Arab. tjA~i*), Bashik. 



The familiar Kestrel is extremely common in every part of the 

 country, east and west, to the confines of the southern desert, throughout 

 the year. It abounds alike in the desolate gorges of the Dead Sea and 

 in the sacred recesses of the Mosque of Omar. It is here more or less 

 gregarious, and associates not only with its own kind, but shares caves 

 with Griffons or Eagles, or utilizes the fringe of the huge nest of the 

 Egyptian Vulture. 



The Kestrel inhabits the whole of Europe and Asia, and North, East, 

 and West Africa. 



223. Falco ccnchris. Cuv. Regne Anim. i., p. 322. Lesser Kestrel. 



Unlike its congener, the Lesser Kestrel does not remain in Palestine 

 for the winter, but returns in March, and at once consorts with the 

 Common Kestrel. It is seen everywhere, especially towards evening, in 

 the cultivated grounds about the villages, in pursuit of Cockchafers and 

 Beetles. It breeds in communities, in very deep fissures in the rocks, 

 choosing sometimes clefts in a town, as at Nazareth. The Arabs dis- 

 tinguish it from the other species, calling it very appropriately the 

 ' White-nailed Bashik.' 



The Lesser Kestrel inhabits Southern Europe, North Africa, and 



