NATURAL HISTORY. 



THE GREENLAND JER-FALCON (Hlerofalco candiean*)* 



Besides the Peregrine, there were used in falconry, in England, the Noble, or Jer-Falcons, birds 

 which were much prized, although they did not possess the same fire and dash in pursuit of their 

 quarry exhibited by the former bird. There are five distinct kinds of these northern Jer-Falcons, 

 without mentioning the Saker Falcon of South-eastern Europe, which also belongs to the genus 

 Hlerofalco. The best known is the Greenland Jer-Falcon, which, as its name implies, is an inhabitant 

 of Greenland and North America, young birds only occurring in the British Islands during migration. 

 This species is nearly pure white in colour when fully adult, the back and wings retaining small spots 

 of black, the entire head and breast, and especially the tail, becoming pure white as the bird gets older 

 and loses the spots and bars which characterise its immature dress. An unfailing mark by which a 

 Greenland Jer-Falcon can be told at any age is the light yellowish bill and cere, and the absence of 

 aiTOW-shaped bars on the flanks, which in young birds are longitudinally streaked with brown, but are 

 never barred. All the other Jer-Falcons have distinct bars across the flanks, as well as bluish bills 

 and regularly barred tails. They are four in number, the Norway Jer-Falcon (H. gyrfalco\ the 

 Iceland Jer-Falcon (H. islandicus), Holboll's Jer-Falcon (H. holbolli), and the Labrador Jer-Falcon 

 (//. labradorus). They are nearly all peculiar to the countries whose names they bear, the Norway bird 

 not occurring anywhere out of Europe and Northern Asia, one specimen having been known to occur 

 in England ; it seems also to emigrate to Central Asia, as a single bird was procured during the last 

 Yarkand Mission. All the Jer-Falcons have shorter toes than the Peregrines, in which the outer toe 

 is very long, while in the other birds the outer and inner toes are about equal in length. 



When in a wild state the Greenland Falcon feeds upon Ptarmigan, Geese, and on the sea-birds 

 which freqtient the cliffs where it takes up its abode. It evinces great courage in defending its 

 nest. 



THE KESTRELS (Cerclweis). 



These form a group of short-toed Hawks, like the foregoing, but are much more numerous in 

 species, and are found distributed all over the world, with the exception of some of the Oceanic 

 Islands. More than twenty different kinds of Kestrel are recognised by naturalists, and they ai-e 

 more insect-feeding birds than the bolder and nobler Falcons which have just been spoken of. The 

 commonest and best known of all is 



THE COMMON KESTREL, OR WIND-HOVER (Cerchneis 

 This species gains its name of Wind-hover from a very pretty and graceful action with which it 

 hangs suspended in the air, as if by a thread, keeping itself balanced by a constant winnowing 

 of the air by its wings, and from this position it scans the ground below for a stray Mouse which 

 may venture out of its hole, for mice and small birds constitute its principal food. It is frequently 

 to be seen in the autumn hovering about a field of sheaved corn in the twilight, selecting a 

 position about forty feet in the air, and occasionally stooping down on some prey in the 

 stubb'e below. Should it not succeed in its pounce, it flies a little way in a few easy circles, 

 and again commences to hover over a new part of the field. Insects also form a staple 

 article of food to the Kestrel, who devours them while in full flight, passing its leg up to its 

 bill, and the author has met with an instance of a Kestrel hawking for insects over a stream in 

 the late evening. This Hawk is, unfortunately, often confounded through the ignorance of game- 

 keepers with the Sparrow-Hawk, and suffers consequently for the misdeeds of the latter, a fact much to 

 be regretted, for it is a very useful bird, owing to the number of mice it destroys ; indeed, a 

 writer in Macgillivray's " British Birds " computes that a single Kestrel would destroy upwards of ten 

 thousand mice during its stay in Britain. It will also catch birds, but in limited numbers, and 

 then generally only during the breeding season, when its young require constant food. Although of a 

 less ferocious nature and aspect than the Falcons, the Kestrel, nevertheless, often shows forth his 

 accipitrine temperament in a way that would scarcely be expected from his mild-looking dark eye, 



* icpds, sacred ; falcu, a Falcon ; caitdicaits, white. t Kipjivrj/s, or K<?PX I ' T )> ^ F M a Kestrel ; tinnunculus, Lat., a Hawk. 



