KESTREL FALCOxM. 337 



Progress toward Maturity. — At the first moult, the male 

 assumes a greyish-blue colour on the head, rump^ and tail ; 

 but the head is still tinged with red, and the tail barred on 

 both webs. At the next moult, the tints are purer, the dark 

 markings smaller, and the spots on the outer webs of the tail- 

 feathers have disappeared. The dark markings of the female 

 also become more attenuated ; but the parts which ultimately- 

 become greyish-blue in the male, are in her merely tinged with 

 that colour, and the tail continues barred. 



Remarks. — The comparative shortness of the middle toe, 

 the enlarged anterior scales of the tarsus, and the rounded tail, 

 of this bird, have induced some ornithologists to separate it 

 from the genus Falco ; but if differences so slight suffice to 

 form generic characters, hardly two species can be kept to- 

 gether. Falco tinnunculoides of the south of Europe, and 

 Falco sparverius of America, are the species most nearly allied 

 to the Kestrel, which in form differs little from the Merlin. 

 The young of that species bear a considerable resemblance in 

 colour to the young and female of the Kestrel, the latter of 

 which was figured by Buffon as a Merlin. 



I omitted to mention in the proper place that, as the Rev. 

 Mr Gordon, of Birnie, informs me, " the Kestrel, which is 

 the most abundant of the small hawks in Morayshire, builds 

 at the Rocks of Covesea, on the cliffs above Mill of Birnie, 

 and in ravines about the Glen of Rothes, as well as in many 

 similar situations." 



VOL. III. 



