MERLIN. 19 



to the moorlands descends from these elevated localities and 

 visits the more enclosed country, and occasionally the close 

 proximity of large towns. 



FALCO TINNUNCULUS L. 

 Kestrel. 



A common and generally distributed resident. 



In Yorkshire, as in most other counties, the Kestrel is the 

 most numerous and the best known species of the Falconidse. 

 It is generally distributed, being reported from every district in the 

 county as occurring during some part of the year. As a breeder, 

 it is found in all suitable localities, adapting itself to every variety 

 of situation for the rearing of its progeny. In wooded districts it 

 prefers the deserted nest of a Crow or Magpie ; among the fells, 

 a rocky ledge ; and on the coast the cliffs ; while in the open 

 pastoral country, ruins and hollow trees are occasionally resorted 

 to. All seem to be acceptable, and its absence from them can 

 be accounted for by persecution or the immediate vicinity of 

 some manufacturing centre. There are certain portions of the 

 densely populated districts of the West Riding in which this 

 species is now only observed as a winter visitant, probably from 

 elevated and more exposed localities, though formerly it bred there; 

 and at Spurn Head it is annually noticed as an early autumn 

 migrant. 



With regard to the Kestrel's wintering in Yorkshire, Mr. J. 

 E. Harting wrote as follows in the Field for 1872 : — " The Kestrel, 

 which to a certain extent is migratory, has been observed to be a 

 resident in the neighbourhood of Barnsley throughout the year. 

 This district may possibly be the northern limit of its winter 

 haunts ; and if this is so, in all probability the Kestrels seen at 

 Barnsley in the winter are not the same birds which spent the 

 summer there, but are new comers from the north, taking the 



