52 BRITISH BIRDS. 
and Palestine. It is occasionally found in North France and North 
Germany ; but these examples are rare stragglers out of the usual line of 
migration. It passes through the whole of North Africa, where a con- 
siderable number remain to breed. It winters in South Africa, having 
been found in Damara Land, the Transvaal, and the Cape. In the east it 
is represented by a very nearly allied species, F. pekinensis, which breeds 
in China and winters in India, where a few are said to remain in the 
mountains during the breeding-season. 
The Lesser Kestrel is a very gregarious bird, seldom found in isolated 
pairs. It is very partial to rocks and ruins ; and I have seen them in great 
numbers flying in and out of the holes of the ruins of the Acropolis at 
Athens. In the villages of the Parnassus and in Asia Minor, for want of 
more suitable places, it breeds under the eaves of the houses; and I 
particularly remember a colony in a street in Missolonghi. Dr. Kriiper 
says that he has found the nest in hollow trees; and I have frequently 
seen it perched in a tree. In and around the village of Menemen, not 
far from Smyrna, it was especially abundant, and we generally saw half a 
dozen on the wing together. We shot one out of three perched on the 
branches of an old olive-tree in the middle of the village ; and once in the 
Parnassus we shot several birds which were flying about in the company 
of the Common Kestrel. The Lesser Kestrel is a migratory bird, arriving 
at its breeding-quarters about the middle of March. It breeds towards 
the end of April; and I found several nests late in June containing young 
birds. Some of these were under the eaves of the houses, and others in 
holes of the walls. The nests were extremely slight; and frequently the 
eggs were laid in a hollow scratched in the rubbish. Five seems to be the 
usual number of eggs; but I have clutches of four, andone of seven. The 
male bird appears to relieve the female in her duties, as on a nest which 
we took, containing five eggs, on the 15th of May in a village in the 
Parnassus, we caught the male and afterwards shot the female. The food 
of this bird during the breeding-season appears to be almost entirely com- 
posed of grasshoppers ; and we often saw flocks or small parties flying up 
and down in the vicinity of their nests not at all disturbed by our watching 
them. We could see them thrust out their feet to catch the flying grass- 
hoppers, and could notice them bring their feet to the bill, after which 
the hard parts of the grasshopper were distinctly seen to fall to the ground. 
They are very noisy on the wing; and their ery is very peculiar: Dr. 
Kriiper pointed out to me its resemblance to the Greek word ReBaiws 
(pronounced vev-ai!-ose), which may be translated into American-English 
as “‘yes, certainly.’ Canon Tristram mentions their abundance near 
some of the villages in Palestine, pursuing insects, especially cockchafers, 
towards evening. He also mentions that he never found a colony of these 
birds without finding many of the Common Kestrel breeding in the same 
