12 BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. 



Turnstones in all the low sandy or muddy bays in 

 the Islands. 



The Merlin is included in Professor Ansted's list, 

 but only marked as occurring in Guernsey. There 

 is no specimen in the Museum at present. 



8. KESTREL. Falco tinnunculus, Linnaeus. French, 

 " Faucon cresserelle." The Kestrel is by far the 

 commonest hawk in the Islands, and is resident 

 throughout the year. I do not think that its 

 numbers are at all increased during the migratory 

 season. It breeds in the rocky parts of all the 

 Islands. The Kestrel does not, however, show 

 itself so frequently in the low parts even in the 

 autumn as on the high cliffs, so probably King 

 Dotterell, Purres, and Turnstones do not form so 

 considerable a part of its food as they do of the 

 Merlin. Skylarks, Kock and Meadow Pipits, and, 

 in the summer, Wheatears, with a few rats and 

 mice, seem to afford the principal food of the 

 Kestrel, and to obtain these it has not to wander 

 far from its breeding haunts. 



The Kestrel is quite as common in Alderney and 

 Herm, and even in the little Island of Jethou, as it 

 is in Guernsey and Sark. One or two pairs, per- 

 haps more, breed on the before-mentioned rock 

 close to Jethou " La Fauconniere," though a few 

 pairs of Kestrels breeding there would scarcely 

 have been sufficient to give it its name. 



