2742 The Zoologist — September, 1871. 



" Dr. G. Radde has more recentlj-- recorded the following notes : — 



" ' The kestrel is much rarer in East Siberia than the other small hawks, 

 but has been found there by the later travellers. On my journey to East 

 Siberia I found it common as far as Omsk, but eastward of that only 

 occasional. During the migration T saw them in the Selenga valley, near 

 the Gusinoi Lake, early in September, and late in March near the Onon, 

 between Sasutsche and the new fortress of Tschindautsk, and in July, 1859, 

 in the high mountains as I passed from the Oka to the Irkut, and had to 

 pass over heights above the tree-region (7000 ft.). I did not see it in the 

 Central Amoor ; but it is doubtless found here, as Schrenck observed it on 

 the Ussuri, and Dr. Maack brought it from the head-waters of the Amoor.' 



" We believe that the observations of Pallas regarding the range of the 

 kestrel are correct, as borne out to a great extent by Radde. The Amoor 

 bird must certainly be the same as the Japanese dark race, and therefore is 

 not the true F. tinuuuculus. We believe also that the birds observed by 

 Radde in the Baikal region belonged also to the Japanese form. 



" The kestrel appears to be still an unsettled species, and has doubtless 

 been at one time a thorough migrant from Europe. In the East it still 

 follows its migratory instincts, but in the west of Europe has become more 

 or less sedentary. The great gatherings above alluded to by Pallas seem to 

 point to the southern deserts of Siberia and Central Asia as the place 

 whence the southward migration of the kestrel still emanates in full force ; 

 and from that point the line of flight seems to take a southerly direction. 

 Part of the migration populates India in the cold season, and part proceeds 

 in the direction of North-eastern Africa, as we shall presently see. 



" Major Irby has stated that in Oudh and Kumaon it is common during 

 the cold season, and occasionally seen during the rains ; and Dr. Jerdon, in 

 his ' Birds of India,' writes as follows : — 



" ' The kestrel is a cold-weather visitant to India, one of our earliest, 

 indeed, and it does not leave till April. It is most abundant, being found 

 in every part of the country, and at all elevations. Its chief food is lizards ; 

 but it also eats rats and mice, insects, especially grasshoppers and locusts, 

 and rarely young or sickly birds. It constantly hovers over a spot where it 

 has observed something move, and, when certain of its presence, drops down 

 on it with noiseless wing. BIyth mentions that parties of twenty or thirty 

 individuals may be seen together beating over the cultivated lands in Lower 

 Bengal. This I have never witnessed. It does not breed in this country. 

 Dr. Horsfield, in his ' Catalogue,' apparently quoting from Mr. BJyth, says, 

 " It breeds in April in lofty trees, and also on the top of minarets." I ima- 

 gine he must have been quoting from some other naturalist, not an obseiTcr 

 in India. It used to be trained occasionally in Europe to hunt larks, quails, 

 and other small birds; but it is scouted by the Indian falconers as an 

 ignoble race.' 



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