LESSER KESTREL. 51 



FALCO CENCHRIS. 



LESSER KESTREL. 

 (PLATE 4.) 



Falco turrimu. fierini, Orn. Met A. Diy. i. p. t>7, pi. lii. (1767X 



Falco naumaniii, Fleischer, Sylvan, 1817, p. 175. 



Falco xanthonyx, Xatt.Jide Fleischer, Sylvan, 1817, p. 175. 



Falco cenchris*, ynnm. J'oy. Deutschl. i. p. 318 (1820, ex Frisch) ; et auctorum 



plurimorum Cuviei; (Kaup), Schickel, (Bonaparte), (Gray), (Newton), Dresser, 



fee. 



Falco tinnunculoides, Schinz, Jiile Xauni, Vb'a. Deutschl. i. p. 323 (1820). 

 Falco tinmmcularius, 7'iViV/. Fa**. Franc,, p. 36, pi. 16. fig. 3 (1829). 

 Cerchueis cenchris (Xaum.). Brehm, Voy. Deutschl. p. 74 (1831). 

 Tinnunculus ceuchris (AT/MMi.), Bp. Cat. Met. Ucc. Eur, p. 21 (1842). 

 Tichornis cenchris (Xaum.), Kaup, Classif. Saug. u. Voy. p. 108 (1844). 

 Pcecilornis cenchris (Xauni.), Kaup, Contr. Orn. 1850, p. 53. 

 Cerchneis naumanni (Fleischer), Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. p. 435 (1674). 



The claim of this species to be considered a British bird rests upon a 

 single example which was shot in the neighbourhood of York by Mr. John 

 Harrison, of Wilsthorpe Hall. There can be no doubt about the 

 authenticity of this specimen, which was identified at the time by my 

 friend the late Mr. Thomas Allis, of York, an excellent ornithologist. I 

 have seen the specimen, which was stuffed by Mr. Graham, and is now in 

 the York Museum. Mr. Harrison assures me that he has no doubt 

 whatever that the bird in the museum is the one he shot. He is 

 himself an ornithologist, and has a fine collection both of birds and eggs. 

 His attention was first attracted to the bird by noticing it flying about 

 on his farm very late in the autumn of 1869 ; and he shot it under the 

 impression that it was a small and curious variety of the Common Kestrel. 

 That this bird does occasionally wander north of its usual habitat is proved 

 by its having been obtained on Heligoland. 



Its breeding-range may be said to be the basin of the Mediterranean. 

 It is very common in Southern Spain, and is said to breed in some parts 

 of the Pyrenees. It is not uncommon in Sardinia and Sicily, but is very 

 rare in Italy. In Greece it is extremely abundant, breeding as far north 

 as South Bulgaria. In Russia it breeds only in the extreme south. It is 

 very common in the Caucasus, Western Turkestan, Persia, Asia Minor, 



* F. cenchris is the name which has been applied to the Lesser Kestrel by an over- 

 whelming majqjfty of ornithologists : and Dresser still retains it in defiance oi the law of 

 priority, although in his synonymy he shows four older names. Sharpe, led away by the 

 Stricklandian code, uses one of these old and deservedly forgotten names : and if the law 

 of priority survives long enough, some ambitious ornithologist will be found rash enough 

 to back Geriui's name against the field. 



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