56 FALCONID.E. 



uniform in colour and less distinctly barred than in the 

 male. 



Young males are like the female till after their first 

 winter, but begin by slow degrees of change in colour to 

 exhibit the plumage which distinguishes the male after having 

 completed their first year. 



Mr. John Atkinson of Leeds, in his compendium of the 

 Ornithology of Great Britain, says of the Kestrel, " Our 

 tame specimens, having their wings cut to prevent escape, 

 exhibited great adroitness in climbing the trunk of a tree." 



