83 FALCONIDiE. 



Hawk," F. sparverhis, rivals F. tiniiancidus iu its range, 

 extending over nearly the whole of the New World ; and, 

 though examples vary exceedingly in colour, it has hitherto 

 defied the power of ornithologists satisfactorily to divide it 

 even into local races. One species, the Lesser Kestrel and 

 Falco cenchris of authors — a common bird in Southern 

 Europe — is said to have been killed in England, and has been 

 admitted by the Rev. Francis Orpen Morris to a place in the 

 last edition of his ' British Birds,' but on what appears to 

 have been incomplete evidence. 



The whole length of the Kestrel is from thirteen to fifteen 

 inches, depending on the sex. The male, the upper figure 

 in the illustration, has the beak blue, pale towards the base ; 

 the cere and orbits yellow, the irides dark brown ; the top of 

 the head, cheeks, and nape of the neck, ash-grey, with 

 dusky longitudinal streaks ; the back, tertials, and wing- 

 coverts, reddish fawn-colour, Avith small black triangular 

 spots dispersed over them, one occupying the point of each 

 feather; the primaries and secondaries blackish-grey, Avith 

 lighter-coloured edges ; the tail-feathers ash-grey, with a 

 broad black band near the end, and a white tip ; the breast 

 and belly pale rufous fawn-colour, with dark longitudinal 

 streaks on the former, and dark spots on the latter ; the thighs 

 and under tail-coverts rufous fawn-colour, without spots ; 

 the tail beneath greyish-white, with imperfect dark transverse 

 bars ; the legs and toes yellow ; the claws black. 



In the female, the top of the head is reddish fawn-colour, 

 striped darker longitudinally ; the whole of the upper surface 

 reddish-brown, barred transversely with bluish-black ; pri- 

 maries darker than in the male : the whole under surface of 

 the body of a paler ferruginous colour, but streaked on the 

 breast and spotted lower down, as iu the male ; under surface 

 of the tail more uniform in colour and less distinctly barred 

 than in the male. 



Young males are like the female till after their first winter, 

 but then begin to exhibit the adult plumage, the head being 

 the last part to change. 



