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ICESTREL. 
WINDHOVER. STONEGALL. STANNEL HAWK, 
Falco Tinnunculus, Montacu. SELBY. 
Aceipiter alaudarius, BRIsson. 
Falco Tinnunculus. Faleo—To cut with a bill or hook. 
Tinnunculus—Conjectured from Zinnio—To chirp. 
THIS species is in my opinion, not only, as it is usually 
described to be, one of the commonest, but the commonest of 
the British species of Hawks. It is found in all parts of 
Europe—Denmark, France, Italy, Spain, Norway, Sweden, 
Lapland, Greece, and Switzerland; and also in Asia, in Siberia; 
in Central Africa, and at the Cape of Good Hope; and also, 
according to Meyer, in America. It is easily reclaimed, and 
was taught to capture larks, snipes, and young partridges. It 
becomes very familiar when tamed, and will live on terms of 
perfect amity with other small birds, its companions. It formed, 
and perhaps still forms, one of the so-called ‘happy family,’ to be 
seen, or which was lately to be seen, in London. The Kestrel 
has frequently been taken by its pursuing small birds into a 
room or building. It does infinitely more good than harm, 
if indeed it does any harm at all, and its stolid destruction 
by gamekeepers and others, is much to be lamented, and 
should be deprecated by all who are able to interfere for the 
preservation of a bird which is an ornament to the country. 
These birds appear to be of a pugnacious disposition, 
J. W. G. Spicer, Esq., of Esher Place, Surrey, writing in the 
‘Zoologist, pages 654-5, says, ‘all of a sudden, from two 
trees near me, and about fifty yards apart, two Hawks rushed 
simultaneously at each other, and began fighting most furiously, 
screaming and tumbling over and over in the air. I fired 
and shot them both, and they were so firmly grappled together 
by their talons, that I could hardly separate them, though 
