US CERCHNEIS TINNUNCULTJS. 



to those hills. Its favourite situations in India for building its nest are crevices and overhung ledges in the 

 face of high cliffs ; but it has also been found nesting in trees, and in England, as is well known, frequently 

 takes possession of a crow's nest. The structure is sometimes bulky, and at others the reverse, the require- 

 ments of the situation no doubt determining the design. It is made of sticks and lined with small twigs and 

 grass-roots, sometimes intermingled with pieces of rag. The eggs are usually four in number, of a brick- or 

 blood-red ground-colour, freckled or spotted with deep red, with occasionally a few blotches or clouds of the 

 same. The average of 19 eggs, according to Mr. Hume, was T57 by T21 inch. 



In some countries the Kestrel breeds together in colonies, and even in company with other birds. Canon 

 Tristram remarks, in his " Notes on the Ornithology of Palestine " :—" It is generally gregarious, ten or twenty 

 pairs breeding in the same ruins, and rearing their young about the end of March. It often builds its nest 

 in the recesses of the caves which are occupied by Griffons; and is the only bird which the Eagles appear to 

 permit to live in close proximity to them. At Amman, too, it builds in the ruins in company with the 

 Jackdaws ; and in several places, as at Lydda and Nazareth, large colonies are mixed indiscriminately with 

 those of the following species {Tinnunculus cenchris)." 



