KESTREL. 61 



under tail-coverts rufous fawn colour, without spots ; under 

 surface of the tail-feathers greyish white, with imperfect 

 dark transverse bars, terminating with the black band and 

 white tips, as on the upper surface ; the legs and toes 

 yellow ; the claws black. 



In the female, the top of the head is reddish fawn colour, 

 striped darker longitudinally; the whole of the back, 

 wings, upper tail-coverts, and tail, reddish brown, barred 

 transversely with bluish black ; wing-primaries darker than 

 in the male : the whole under surface of the body of a 

 paler ferruginous colour, but streaked on the breast and 

 spotted lower down, as in the male ; under surface of the 

 tail-feathers more uniform in colour and less distinctly 

 barred than in the male. 



Young males are like the female till after their first 

 winter, but begin by slow degrees of change in colour to 

 exhibit the plumage which distinguishes the male after 

 having completed their first year. 



Mr. John Atkinson of Leeds, in his compendium of 

 the Ornithology of Great Britain, says of the Kestrel, 

 " Our tame specimens, having their wings cut to prevent 

 escape, exhibited great adroitness in climbing the trunk of 

 a tree." 



