2744 The Zoologist — September, 1871. 



darker reddish gray, aud the baud on the tail appears to he 

 broader.' 



" Mr. Blanford, during the recent Abyssinian expedition, found it 

 ' common both in the highlands and lowlands in the winter and spring. 

 The bird abounded on the former as late as April. None were observed in 

 the Anseba valley in July and August.' 



" The kestrel likewise occurs in Western Africa, having been received 

 from Senegambia, and more recently sent from Fantee by Dr. Hinde, as 

 recorded by Sharpe, in his essays on the Ornithology of the Fantee country. 

 The last collection sent by the late Mr. Andersson from Damaraland con- 

 tained a single skin of the common kestrel ; so that it would appear to be 

 by no means so southern a migrant as the lesser kestrel or redfooted falcon, 

 though doubtless a few individuals join the immense flocks of the latter birds 

 which visit Southern Africa in the winter. 



" In the Azores the kestrel is resident, and, curiously enough, does not 

 vary like the Madeira bird. Mr. J. G. Keulemans, who resided for some 

 time in the above-mentioned island, has favoured us with the following 

 note ; — 



" ' The kestrel is very common on all the Cape-Verde Islands, aud it may 

 be seen on the sea-shore as well as near the houses in the interior. I have 

 often seen it on the tops of the mountains, at a height of more than 5000 

 feet. It is a resident species, and I often received the young birds. Its 

 principal food is mice, grasshoppers and beetles. In some localities, like 

 the plantations along the rivers of the island of St. Jago, many individuals 

 are seen together, and they are there generally very tame, while on the 

 mountains of the other islands they seem to be wild and shy. Though 

 residing in a dry, mountainous aud sandy locality, there is not the slightest 

 difference in the colours between them and the kestrel of Europe. The 

 inhabitants of the different islands call it Zchcllinha ; but on St. Jago the 

 name is Falconha and Francelho. The natives of all the islands eat the 

 bird, and much relish the flesh of the young.' 



" In the Azores it is only an occasional visitant. Mr. Godman has 

 kindly lent us the only specimen he has received from those islands, and 

 we find it to be identical with the British bird. 



" Of all the hawks this is the one with which we are most familiar. 

 What dweller in the country but knows the kestrel, and has watched him 

 poised aloft on quivering wing, scanning with eager eye the ground beneath, 

 until his prey is spied and secured by his downward swoop ? Were it not 

 for the mistaken ignorance of the farmer and gamekeeper, this pretty falcon 

 would be far more common ; and it is small credff to the farmer to allow 

 this useful bird to be slaughtered by day, and its coadjutor, the barn owl, 

 by night, both of them subsisting on the field-mice and other small animals 

 most injurious to his interests. The kestrel is one of the last falcons to 



