FALCO NA.UMANNI 149 



rest of underparts pale cinnamon, vpith a few minute blackish stripes here 

 and there ; crissum and under tail-coverts whitish. 



Iris brown ; bill bluish and yellowish at the base ; cere and bare skin 

 round the eyes yellow ; feet bright yellow, claws ivhitish. 



Total length 12-50 inches, wing 9-50, culmen -65, tarsus 1-20. 



Adult female, spring, from Kasrin, Central Tunisia. 



Crown and nape pale rufous, faintly striated with blackish ; back, 

 scapulars, and upper wing-coverts rufous, barred with black ; rump 

 bluish-ash-brown ; tail bluish-ash above, becoming rufous lower down, 

 barred with black and having a broad subterminal black band and white 

 tip ; chin whitish-buff ; a faint moustachial stripe ; underparts rufescent- 

 buff, striped on the breast and upper abdomen with dark brown ; crissum 

 and under tail-coverts buff. 



Soft parts and measurements as in the male. 



The Lesser Kestrel is almost, if not quite, as abundant in Tunisia 

 during the spring and summer as its larger relative, the Common 

 Kestrel, but the bulk of the birds are non-resident and leave the 

 country in autumn. A few individuals, however, seem to remain in 

 the Regency throughout the winter months and Mr. Aplin met with 

 a small flock of these birds on the 8th of February, near Ouhamia, to 

 the south of Gabes. 



Loche says the Lesser Kestrel is less common ia Algeria than the 

 preceding species. I have specimens of it from Marocco, obtained in 

 February and April ; and from Tripoli in April. In Southern Europe 

 the species is plentiful in spring and summer, but is almost entirely 

 migratory. A few of the birds are, however, said to winter in South 

 Spain, Sicily and Sardinia. In Sicily the Lesser Kestrel is called 

 Falco tunisino, or Fako maltcse. According to Doderlein (Avif. Mod. 

 Sic. p. 40), the latter name owes its origin to the fact that it was once 

 the custom of the Knights of St. John of Malta, to present their 

 Sovereign with a number of these birds on St. John's Day, June 24th. 



In its habits the Lesser Kestrel resembles its larger relative to 

 a great extent, bat is even more gregarious and sociable. Its flight 

 and food also appear to be the same, the latter consisting chiefly of 

 insects and small mammals, varied occasionally by lizards or other 

 small reptiles. 



In its mode of nesting, too, it resembles the Common Kestrel, 

 breeding in colonies, in the clefts of rocks and in holes of old buildings, 

 but apparently it never nests in trees. The Lesser Kestrel, indeed, 

 seems to make no nest at all, but deposits its eggs on the bare ground 

 in the hole selected as its breeding-home. The number of eggs in a 



