80 FALCONID^. 



dark brownish-red or orange, and sometimes with blotches of 

 the same upon a pale reddish or white ground. They vary 

 in size more than those of the Merlin, which they otherwise 

 much resemble, and measure from 1*42 to 1*67 by 1*36 to 

 1*2 in. The young are hatched about the end of April or 

 beginning of May, and are clothed with a yellowish-white 

 down. 



The Kestrel is too common in these islands to render 

 necessary an enumeration of the counties in which it breeds. 

 In the south, and perhaps in other parts of England, its 

 numbers receive an increase in autumn, supplied doubtless 

 from the north, and there are districts in which it is either 

 wholly unknown or but seldom seen in winter, so that in 

 Britain it partially migrates, while in many other countries 

 it does so unmistakably. It is a bird of very wide distri- 

 bution, and as Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser remark, "ranges 

 over the entire Palaearctic Region, being found throughout 

 Europe and Siberia, visiting India in the winter, and also 

 migrating, but apparently in more limited numbers, to 

 Africa." It must be said, however, that the Kestrel does 

 not occur in Iceland, and has only once, according to Herr 

 H. C. Muller, been taken in the Faeroes. Its precise 

 northern limit in Europe is perhaps doubtful ; but, though 

 it was found breeding near Tromso in Norway by Professor 

 Lilljeborg, and by Wolley in Finland, at about 68 N. lat., 

 there seems to be no proof of its reaching, as has been 

 stated, the North Cape, and it was never observed in East 

 Finmark by Pastor Sommerfelt during his nine years' resi- 

 dence. With regard to its range in Siberia, Herr Radde 

 says that he found it common only as far as Omsk, beyond 

 which it was very seldom seen. Still Kestrels occur much 

 further to the eastward, though whether they are identical 

 with the tmeFalco tinnunculus, or belong to the darker form, 

 which, from its inhabiting Japan, has been separated as a 

 variety under the name of japonicus, remains uncertain. In 

 China, it would seem, from Mr. Swinhoe's researches, that 

 both forms occur. Some examples from Burmah, India, 

 and Ceylon, in Lord Walden's collection, are, according to 



