IV FALCONIDAE r7's 
brown, and chestnut thighs. //. orientalis of the same countries 
lacks the red tints, H. novae guineae of New Guinea is less 
spotted. These three Kestrel-like birds love swampy districts, 
and devour small mammals, birds, frogs, lizards, newts, insects, 
and even carrion; being valuable alles in caterpillar-plagues, but 
farmyard pests at ordinary times. The nest of sticks, lined with 
bark or leaves, is placed in trees, the three or four whitish eggs 
are blotched with reddish-brown. 
The nearly cosmopohtan genus Zinnunculus (Kestrel), so 
called from its querulous “ bell-like” note, is separated from 
Falco rather by pattern of colour than structural considerations. 
T. alaudarius, the most plentiful of the British Falconidae 
which is occasionally seen in winter near its breeding-quarters, 
though chiefly a summer immigrant—vranges from the Atlantic 
Islands and lat. 68° N. in Europe, through Asia to Japan and 
China, reaching Fantee and Mombasa in Africa, and having been 
once recorded from Massachusetts in America. The sub-species 
neglectus, japonicus, and saturatus are darker than the type; 
wherein the male is chiefly bluish-grey above, and buff with black 
spots and streaks below; the chestnut back being spotted with 
black, and the white-tipped tail having a broad subterminal black 
band. The female has rufous upper parts, with dark bars continued 
down the tail. The Kestrel or Wind-hover is a shy arboreal bird 
of somewhat crepuscular tendencies, generally observed circhng 
gracefully aloft in readiness to drop upon its prey, or “ hovering ” 
with rapid vibrations of the long wings, the tail expanded and 
the head to windward. Small mammals and coleoptera furnish 
most of the food, a few birds—very seldom game—lizards, frogs, 
worms, grasshoppers, and insect-larvae varying the diet. — Its 
great utility is now generally recognised, while sensible keepers 
should be fast learning that all Hawks and Owls are not 
“vermin.” It rarely builds its own nest, but occupies deserted 
habitations of Crows, Pies, and other birds, relined sparingly 
with twigs and grass, or scrapes a cup in the soil of some ledge 
or cavity of a cliff. At times hollow trees, ruins, and chalk-pits 
are chosen, or even level ground in the fens—pellets of bones, 
feathers, fur, and beetles’ elytra commonly marking the spot. The 
four to six eggs are creamy-white, blotched or thickly mottled 
with bright or dull red. 7”. cenchris, the Lesser Kestrel, with white 
claws, and unspotted back in the male, has four or five times 
