478 KEST REEL 
of species placed by Dr. Sharpe (Cat. B. Br. Mus. i. pp. 423-448) 
under the generic designation of Cerchneis (which should properly be 
Tinnunculus) included “three natural groups sufficiently distinct to be 
treated as at least separate subgenera, bearing the name of Dissodectes, 
Tinnunculus, and Erythropus.” Of these we may say that the first 
and last are not at all Kestrels, but are perhaps rather related to 
Hypotriorchis. Mr. Gurney’s latest views as shewn in 1884 (List of 
the Diurnal Birds of Prey, pp. 96-100) recognized 15 species of 
Tinnunculus, with 5 subspecies. 
The ordinary Kestrel of Europe, 7. alaudarius, is by far the 
commonest Bird-of-Prey in the British Islands, and is too common 
and well known to need any description. It is almost entirely a 
Kestret. (After Swainson.) 
summer migrant, coming from the south in early spring and 
departing in autumn, though examples (which are nearly always 
found to be birds of the year) occasionally occur in winter, some 
arriving on the eastern coast in autumn. It is most often observed 
while practising its habit of hanging in the air for a minute or two 
in the same spot, by rapid beats of its wings, as, with head pointing 
to windward and expanded tail, it looks out for prey—consist- 
ing chiefly of mice, but it will at times take a small bird, and the 
remains of frogs, insects, and. even earth-worms have been found in 
its crop. It generally breeds in the deserted nest of a Crow or 
Pie, but frequently in rocks, ruins, or even in hollow trees—laying 
four or five eggs, mottled all over with dark brownish red, some- 
times tinged with orange and at other times with purple. Though 
it may occasionally snatch a young Partridge or Pheasant,! the 
Kestrel is quite the most harmless of the Accipitres, if it be not, 
from its destruction of mice and cockchafers, the most beneficial. 
It is a species of very wide range, extending over nearly the whole 
of Europe from 68° N. lat., and the greater part of Asia—though 
the form which inhabits Japan and is abundant in north-eastern 
China has been by some writers deemed distinct and called 7’ 
japonicus—and it also pervades the greater part of Africa, becom- 
1 Where what are called ‘‘tame”’’ Pheasants are bred, a Kestrel will often 
contract the bad habit of infesting the coops and carrying off the young birds. 
This evil may easily be stopped ; but it should not lead to the relentless perse- 
cution of the species, especially when it is remembered that the Kestrel is in the 
first place attracted to the spot by the presence of the mice which come to eat 
the Pheasants’ food. 
