FALCONID/E. 



357 



THE LESSER KESTREL. 



Falco- cenchris, Naumann. 



The claim of this species to a place in the British list was formerly 

 received with suspicion, but no fewer than five occurrences are now 

 (1898) authenticated. An example in the York Museum was 

 shcvt in the middle of November 1867, by Mr. John Harrison of 

 Wilstrop Hall, who noticed the bird flying about his farm ; in May 

 1877 ^" adult male, with one leg injured, was captured alive near 

 Dover, and presented by Mr. E. P. Robinson to the Museum of 

 that town ; on February 20th 1891 an adult male was shot near 

 Dublin ; early in March of the same year another adult male was 

 obtained near Tresco, Scilly Islands ; and lastly a female is recorded 

 by Mr. G. Sim as having been shot at Boynalie, Aberdeenshire, on 

 October 25th 1897. It may be added that two examples, which 

 had been captured in the Mediterranean, escaped from the s.s. 

 ' Irthington ' : one of them on April 27th 1894, near Blyth, and the 

 other on May 5th, near Belfast (Ibis 1894, p. 451). 



It will not appear so remarkable that the Lesser Kestrel should 

 occasionally visit our islands, when we consider that it is a regular 



