The Zoologist — September, 1871. 2739 



who obtained these did not know the bird ; so that it appears to be a rare 

 bird in Lapland. In recording the above fact in his ' Ootheca Wolleyana,' 

 Professor Newton adds the following editorial note : — ' Mr. WoUey suggests 

 that " the unusual numbers of several kinds of mice " had attracted this 

 species so far beyond its usual limits. Previously to 1857, he was aware 

 of only one instance of its occurrence north of the Gulf of Bothnia. That 

 happened on the 13th of September, 1855, when he and I were approaching 

 Haparanda, ou the Swedish side of the Tornea river. We then saw, and 

 for some minutes watched, an undoubted Tinnunculus alaudarius hovering 

 over a corn-field by the road-side. Its occasional breeding further north 

 was, however, known to Herr Wallengren (Naumannia, 1855, p. 134).' 



" Von Wright states that it is one of the commonest hawks in Finland ; 

 and Mayer says it is common all over Livonia, as also in Denmark, 

 according to Kjarbolling. It is likewise abundant throughout Holland and 

 the Netherlands. De Selys-Longcharaps records it as everywhere common 

 in Belgium, inhabiting equally woods, plains, rocks, or old towers, and as 

 one of the greatest enemies of pigeons. De la Fontaine, commenting on 

 the above statement, says that he has never noticed the fact, as his expe- 

 rience is that the pigeons and kestrels live and nest together in the same 

 walls in perfect harmony. All over Germany, as well as throughout 

 France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Sardinia, the kestrel is a very common 

 bird. 



" With regard to its occurrence in Spain, Mr. Howard Saunders kindly 

 Bends us the accompanying note : — 



" ' Tinnunculus alaudarius is called in Spanish ' cernicalo ' and ' primilla.' 

 It is very abundant throughout Spain, great numbers frequenting the wooded 

 districts, where they nest in the trees, often appropriating old magpies' 

 nests ; but in many cases they evidently make their own. In the mountain- 

 ravines, where they deposit their eggs in holes of the rocks, they are 

 extremely numerous ; but their numbers are particularly displayed in such 

 cities as Seville and Cordova, where many hundreds may be seen towards 

 sunset hovering round the towers of the Giralda and the Mezquita, the 

 belfries being whitened with their excrement and paved with their castings, 

 which principally, indeed almost entirely, consist of remains of insects. la 

 the day they may be seen by three or four hundred at a time, now hanging 

 motionless over the plains near Seville (as the Ettrick Shepherd said of the 

 merlin. 



As if let down from the heaven there 

 By a viewless silken thread), 



now dipping down for a moment upon some beetle on the ground. I am 

 at present speaking of the winter mouths, when the main arrival of the 

 lesser kestrel {F. cenchris) has not taken place, as the latter bird does not 

 generally come till March, though some undoubtedly do remain all the 



