THE KESTRELS. 2OI 



birds. They are true Falcons, with a tooth in the bill, and a 

 central tubercle in the nostril. 



With the exception of some of the more tropical species, 

 Kestrels are migratory birds, and several of them go south in 

 immense flocks, as has been noticed by many observers in 

 their winter quarters in Africa. They are principally insect- 

 feeders, and devour large numbers of locusts, in pursuit of 

 which their large gatherings often take place. 



I. THE COMMON KESTREL. CERCHNEIS TINNUNCULUS. 



Falco tinnunculus^ Linn. Syst. Nat i. p. 393 (1766); Macg. 



Brit. B. iii. p. 325 (1840); Dresser, B. Eur. vi. p. 113, 



pi. 384 (1871); Newt. ed. Yarr. Brit. B. i. p. 79 (1871); 



Seebohm, Brit. B. i. p. 45 (1883); Saunders, Man. Brit. 



B. p. 343 (1889); Lilford, Col. Fig. Br. B. part xvi. 



(1890). 

 Cerchneis tinnunculus (L.), Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. i. p. 425 



(1874). 

 Tinnunculus alaudarius, B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 104 (1883). 



(Plate LI.} 



Adult Male. General colour above rufous fawn-colour or pale 

 chestnut, with a few arrow-head shaped marks of black, plainer 

 on the inner secondaries ; primary-coverts and quills dark 

 brown, the former narrowly margined with rufous, the primaries 

 notched with white for about two-thirds of their length, the 

 inner primaries and outer secondaries narrowly edged and 

 tipped with buffy-white ; head and neck clear slaty-blue, with 

 narrow black shaft-stripes; forehead buffy-white, as also a 

 narrow eyebrow; cheeks silvery-grey, inclining to blackish 

 below the eye, and on the fore-part of the cheeks, forming a 

 tolerably distinct moustache; lower back, rump, upper tail- 

 coverts, and tail clear slaty-blue, the latter tipped with white, 

 before which is a broad sub-terminal band of black ; throat 

 buff, not spotted ; remainder of under surface of body rufous 

 fawn-colour, the chest-feathers mesially streaked with black, 

 these black centres being larger and more oval in shape on the 

 flank-feathers ; thighs clear rufous, unspotted ; under wing- 

 coverts white, spotted with black ; bill bluish horn-colour, 

 black at the tip, yellowish at the base ; cere, orbits, and feet 



