Birds of Teyieriffe. 429 



most of tlie cases described by my informants. Kestrels are 

 constantly to be seen among the houses and gardens in the 

 middle of the towns, so they may occasionally contrive to 

 snap up a well-fed town rat or mouse. 



So far as the other members of the Falconidse occurring 

 in the island are concerned, I have but few remarks to make 

 about the Sparrow-hawk, which is not uncommon near 

 Orotava and along the coast. A recently killed male speci- 

 men was brought to me at Buena Vista on the 26th February. 

 I saw several at various times on the wing, and on one occa- 

 sion, near Orotava, one of these Hawks made a very bold 

 though unsuccessful dash at a small bird within a few yards 

 of a large party of us. Where and when it breeds I am 

 unable to say. 



That the Hobby [Falco subbuteo) is occasionally found in 

 Teneriffe I am tolerably certain. I saw a small Falcon, which 

 I recorded at the time as of this species, on the edge of the 

 pine-woods above La Guaucha ; and Baeza informed me that 

 he had shot two during his lifetime, one near the coast below 

 Eealejo, and the other near Tacoronte. He described the 

 bird accurately, and from his knowledge of the subject I 

 conclude there is no doubt as to these two cases. Webb and 

 Berthelot include the Hobby in their list^ but Bolle seems 

 doubtful about it [vide Godman, Ibis, 1872, p. 165). 



I regret that I have no information about the Peregrine. 

 I fully expected to meet with it in the upper regions of the 

 island, but I never saw or heard of one. Its absence, real 

 or apparent, is the more remarkable when one considers the 

 reliable evidence of its former occurrence, or, it may be said, 

 abundance, given in Don Jose Viera's ' Diccionario de His- 

 toria Natural de las Islas Canarias,' written in 1799, a copy 

 of which I was lucky enough to obtain. I venture to give 

 a translation from this work : — 



" The species of this noble raptorial bird found in our 

 island has acquired considerable reputation. Edmund Scory, 

 in his observations on Teneriffe, published by Purchas (vol. v. 

 chap. 12), affirms that the Falcons of this island were the 

 best and strongest that could be found in the world for 



