CEECHNEIS TINNUNCULUS. 117 



Habits. — As in England so hi Ceylon, the Kestrel prefers open to wooded country, taking up its abode 

 near commons, pasture-land, brush-covered plains, large tracts of dried-up " paddy-field/' and any locality on 

 which its prey (lizards, mice, and small mammals) is exposed to its view. It takes up its quarters on high 

 rocks and precipices, always returning to the same roost, and is very regular in its hours for coursing over the 

 surrounding country in quest of food. Two or three pairs lived annually in the ramparts and cliffs at Trinco- 

 malie ; in the morning they sallied out, returning for their midday rest about 10 o'clock, and passed the heat 

 of the day under some projecting points in the lofty mural sea-face, now and then flying round the Fort, or 

 alighting on the pretty parade-ground, surrounded with fine old trees, in which they often engaged in fierce 

 and quarrelsome harangues with one or two Goshawks (Astur badius) , who objected strongly to the annual 

 invasion of their territory by the smart little Kestrels. In the afternoon, about 3 o'clock, they departed again 

 on their rounds, and were to be seen until evening about the esplanade or among the Suriah trees {Ibiscus) 

 lining the public roads. The Kestrel has a rapid flight, sustained with quick beatings of the wing, and is 

 capable of making sudden and very swift stoops on its prey. It, however, usually hovers over such animals, 

 reptiles, and insects as it feeds on in the remarkable manner for which it is so well known, and drops suddenly 

 down, extending its talons as it reaches the ground, and then usually devours what it has captured on the spot. 

 The skill with which it poises itself, after hovering for some seconds, its wings perfectly motionless and its 

 body suspended, as it were, from the heavens by an invisible thread, is marvellous. I have seen it in such a 

 position in a strong wind, not precisely facing the direction of the current of air, but with one wing 

 pointed up to it — the primaries of which, yielding to the force of the wind, every now and then would 

 give back, but as quickly spring forward into their normal position, while the rest of the body remained 

 unmovable ! 



Its principal food consists of lizards and large beetles in Ceylon ; but in Europe it is an inveterate 

 destroyer of field-mice, although it is not generally accredited with such useful habits, but rather believed to 

 be an enemy of the game-preservers, and frequently pays the usual barn-door penalty at the hands of ignorant 

 keepers. Professor Newton remarks, however, in his late edition of ' Yarrell's British Birds,' that "it does 

 occasionally kill and devour small birds, and at times the young of larger ones." Concerning this assertion 1 

 have only to remark that I feel convinced such occurrences are exceedingly rare, and that in Ceylon I am sure 

 it is entirely an insect- and reptile-feeder. It has been known to catch cockchafers on the wing, seizing them 

 in its claws and devouring them while flying. It doubtless kills the locusts, on which it is said to feed in 

 Egypt, in the same manner. Of its habits in Yarkand and Turkestan, generally, Dr. Scully writes : — " It feeds 

 chiefly on mice, lizards, and grasshoppers ; the Yarkanders add frogs azid, iu winter, sparrows. In the stomach 

 of a Kestrel killed at Yepchan, I found, among other things, a rat's tail 6 inches long." Messrs. Sharpe and 

 Dresser, in their admirable work on the Birds of Europe,' quote from the remarks of Dr. E. Hamilton, on the 

 habits of this species, the following passage concerning its vermin-killing propensities : — " I have trained the 

 Kestrel myself to come to the lure, but never could get it to swoop at birds, although I have starved it almost 



to death ; but put a mouse before it, and it would immediately take it Birds, when given, were 



always left half plucked or half uneaten, as if distasteful." 



Notwithstanding the evidence I have adduced to show my readers that this favourite little Falcon is in 

 the main harmless as regards bird-life, it cannot be entirely absolved from all such offence, for it has been 

 known to suck the eggs of the Missel-Thrush, and also to carry off very young Partridges in England ; but it 

 must be said that the latter crime seems very unnatural when taken in conjunction with Dr. Hamilton's evidence 

 as to its distaste for bird-flesh. As has been shown above, this Kestrel is somewhat gregarious when it becomes 

 very numerous in a locality ; but it is not so much so as the next species. In some parts of Asia its tameness 

 and sociability are remarkable. Dr. Scully remarks, in his interesting journal of his trip to Turkestan, " a 

 couple of Kestrels (Tinnunculus alaudarius) seem to have taken up their abode here; they fly about from the 

 rafters of the verandah to the poplar trees just outside my room." 



Nidiji cation. — The Kestrel was formerly supposed not to breed within Indian limits ; of late years, 

 however, since so much attention has been paid to the subject of ornithology, it has been found nesting in the 

 Himalayas and outlying districts in Cashmere, in the Central Provinces, and in the Nilghiris. This latter 

 locality, however, is only resorted to by the small dark-coloured resident species, which appears to be peculiar 



