THE KESTREL. 



Fako tinnunculus LINNAEUS. 

 PLATE VIII. 



Falco tinnunculus of authors Kestrel of British orni- 

 thologists. Provincially Windhover, Stonegal. 



THE Kestrel is by far the most abundant of 

 our Falcons, we may add of all the British 

 Raptores ; it is also the most universally dis 

 tributed, and inhabits the most varied localities. 

 Ruined buildings are a favourite resting place, 

 and the spires or towers of churches,* where it 

 roosts and incubates even in the more populous 

 towns, free from alarm at the noise or bustle 

 beneath. Well wooded lands, in the midst of 

 cultivation, and extensive forests, are also its 

 breeding places, where the old nest of a carrion 

 crow or magpie, is at once adopted as its own. 



* The only place of this kind, in the vicinity of 

 Belfast, that I know to be selected for the purpose of 

 nidification, is the tower of Ballyleston Church, which, 

 of the many edifices of this description in our populous 

 neighbourhood, is the only one which contains a set of 



musical bells W. Thompson, in Mag. of Zool. and 



Bot. vol. ii. 



