152 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



is found also on the mountains of central and southern Europe ; those to the 

 furthest north niigratino- southwards in the autumn reach northern and central 

 Africa. 



The adult male is slatv bhie above, rufous on the nape, -with a dark shaft to 

 e\ery feather : rufous on the under parts, with longitudinal streaks of blackish 

 brown ; tail with a broad dark band towards the tip, and with traces of other bars 

 on the inner webs ; beak bluish, darker at the tip ; cere and legs yellow ; claws 

 black ; irides dark bi'own : length lo inches. 



The adult female is dark broM-n abo^'e, all the feathers wath blackish shaft 

 stripes and edged and spotted with rufous, those on the crown being darkest ; 

 hind neck greyish white, with streaks of pale rufous ; tail dark brown, with six 

 rufous buff bands, and tipped with buffy white ; chin and upper throat nearly pure 

 white ; rest of the under parts Avhite, broad!}- striped with dark brown ; under 

 tail-coverts white, with narrow shaft stripes; thighs buffish ; length 12 inches. 



Yovmg birds resemble the female, but the crown and back are more rufous. 



Family— FALCONID^. 



Kestrel. 



Faico fiiuniiiciiliis, LiNN. 



THE Kestrel is, at the present da}', the commonest representative of the 

 Falconidcc in the British Islands ; there is hardly any part of the countr}' 

 where he may not be recognised poised in the air hovering stationary with his 

 head to the wind, presently closing his wings to drop like a stone upon some 

 mouse or beetle his keen eyes have detected upon the ground beneath. He is to 

 be met A^-ith everywhere upon the coast, where he nests upon the cliffs, sometimes 

 in close neighbourhood to the formidable Peregrine ; he is common upon the 

 moors, as well as in woodlands and cultivated districts ; and frequents all the 



