KESTREL 



Falco tinniinculus 



Kestrel is by far the commonest bird of prey in the British 

 Islands, and is the most universally distributed, breeding 

 quite as freely in bare rocky districts as it does among 

 the woods and plantations. It is found on most of the 

 Scottish islands, including the Orkneys and the Hebrides, 

 and breeds in many of them, though it retires southward 

 during the winter. 



The Kestrel is a regular migrant, although it is seen in many places 

 during winter throughout Great Britain ; and the greater number of our Kestrels 

 winter in the neighbourhood of the Mediterranean, chiefly on account of the 

 scarcity of their usual food in this country during winter. The graceful 

 movements of this bird in the air, and its habit of hovering as if suspended 

 by a thread, make it one of the best-known and most easily recognised of all 

 the Hawks. It is a most charming bird to watch, as it flies slowly along 

 against the wind some twenty yards or so above the ground, its head moving 

 from side to side as it eagerly scans the ground for its favourite prey. Suddenly 

 it stops and hovers; no! too late, the mouse has darted into its hole; so off 

 it moves again with a few beats of its wings, and skims slowly along with 

 wings and tail spread out, describing a great circle in the air as it wheels 

 round the end of the field and comes back again, regularly beating the ground. 

 Ah! there's something, he is hovering; suddenly he closes his wings and 

 drops like a stone, opening them just as he reaches the ground, and, 

 clutching the unfortunate mouse in his claws, he carries it off in rapid flight 

 to some branch where he can tear it to pieces at his leisure. 



A favourite performance of the Kestrel is the sailing about at a great 

 height, often seen during the pairing season in April, when several of these 

 birds may be noticed chasing each other in the air in huge circles, sometimes 

 VOL. n. N 49 



