78 Falconidce. 



Medlicott, of Potterne, and nine other specimens, all of which 

 were taken in the immediate neighbourhood of Devizes from 

 Poulshot, Rowde, Bromham, Potterne, Roundway, Seend, and 

 Erchfont so that we may claim this sprightly little hawk as 

 fairly common in Wiltshire. The word ' merlin ' is supposed by 

 Skeat to be derived from the French merle and the Latin 

 merula, ' a blackbird.' 



8. THE KESTREL (Falco tinnunculus). 



The most common, the most harmless, and the most persecuted 

 of all the Falconidae is the elegant Kestrel : it abounds in vast 

 numbers throughout the county, and one can scarcely cross the 

 Downs in any direction without seeing it hovering in the air, with 

 wings rapidly quivering and tail outstretched, and with head in- 

 variably turned to the wind from this habit it has derived the two 

 provincial names of ' Windhover' and ' Stonegall,' or ' Standgale.' 



Professor Newton* says that in the southern counties of 

 England its numbers receive an increase in autumn, supplied, 

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

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

 Britain it partially migrates, while in many other countries it 

 does so unmistakably. But even the Kestrel, the only familiar 

 hawk remaining to us in any numbers, is very much diminished 

 within my recollection. Where I used to see half a dozen in a 

 morning's ride on the Downs forty years ago, I scarcely see one 

 now. But if I find these birds more scarce at home, I saw them 

 literally swarming in Egypt, where you meet them at every 

 turn, and where they were once honoured by the ancient 

 Egyptians with divine honours, as the emblem of Horns, Re, or 

 the Sun, and several other gods ; their bodies, with those of the 

 sacred Ibis, preserved as mummies, and their figures admirably 

 pourtrayed in the hieroglyphics and cartouches. I also found it 

 in great abundance in 'Portugal and in Spain, where Lord Lilford 

 our best authority for birds of that country declares he has 



* Fourth edition of Yarrell's ' British Birds,' vol. i., p. 80. 



