FALCONINJE. ACCIPITER. 



53 



parts light red, with transverse spots of dark brown, the 

 lower parts paler, with oblong dark markings. Young similar 

 to the female, but with the spots larger. 



Male, 13, 28, 9|, T 9 ^, l, 1, T y Female, 14^, 30. 



The Kestrel is generally distributed, and in most districts 

 not uncommon, so that it appears to be the most numerous of 

 our rapacious birds. It is especially remarkable for its habit 

 of hovering over the fields when searching for its prey, which 

 consists chiefly of mice, arvicola?, and shrews, in looking for 

 which among the grass it balances itself, with a quivering 

 motion of the wings, at the height of twenty or thirty feet, 

 It occasionally destroys birds also, especially young larks, 

 thrushes, and lapwings, and feeds on beetles and other 

 Coleoptera, as well as earth-worms and lizards. At the 

 commencement of the breeding season it is remarkably voci- 

 ferous. It often takes possession of the deserted nest of a 

 crow or magpie, but in rocky tracts breeds on cliffs or craggy 

 banks. The eggs, which vary from three to five, are broadly 

 elliptical or roundish, pale orange-red, or reddish-white, 

 confusedly dotted or patched all over with dull brownish-red ? 

 and average If inch in length, 1^ in breadth. 



Kestril, Kastril, Kistril. Windhover. Stonegall, Stein- 

 gall, Stannel. Keelie. Sparrow Hawk. 



Falco Tinnunculus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 127. Falco Tin- 

 nunculus, Temm. Man. d'Ornith. i. 29. Falco Tinnunculus, 

 Kestrel, MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, iii. 325. 



GENUS X. ACCIPITER. HAWK. 



Bill short, stout, compressed toward the end ; upper man- 

 dible with the dorsal line decurved from the base, the sides 

 sloping and somewhat convex, the edges with a prominent 

 broad lobe beyond the middle, the tip decurved, trigonal, 

 acute ; lower mandible with the angle wide and rounded, the 

 dorsal line convex, the edges inflected, the tip obliquely trun- 

 cate and rounded. Mouth rather wide ; tongue short, fleshy, 

 concave above, rounded and slightly emarginate ; oesopha- 

 gus wide, dilated into a large crop ; stomach roundish or 

 oblong, its muscular coat very thin, the inner smooth and 

 soft ; intestine rather short and of moderate width ; coaca 

 -very small ; cloaca globular. Nostrils elliptical, oblique. 

 Eyes rather large, with the superciliary ridge prominent. 

 Aperture of the ear roundish, rather large. Head of mode- 



