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of winter. In more sheltered localities, however, they are observed at all seasons. A pair 

 which regularly frequent the ruined steeple of Keswick church, near Norwich, have been seen, 

 by my friend Mr. Edwards, skimming over the fields in search of prey whilst the snow was lying 

 deep ; and the thrashing out of a stack in autumn or winter is sure to bring them at once to the 

 spot to seize, at a respectful distance, on the mice thus expelled from their snug quarters." 



Nilsson writes : — 



" In Southern Sweden it is one of our commonest birds of prey, as it is one of the hand- 

 somest. It is found, however, more in the southern than the northern part of our peninsula. 

 In the north it is scarce, and more so as one approaches the polar circle, within which it seldom 

 penetrates. Still it is found far to the north, and is not rare at Trondhjem, and at Tarroch, on 

 the Bindelsfiord, on the borders of Helgeland, where it inhabits the high cliffs. I have also 

 found it inhabiting the fells of Western Norway, far above the tree-growth, and nearly at an 

 altitude where the snow always lies. Here it inhabits high steep cliffs." 



Mr. Wolley's collection contained four eggs of the Kestrel taken at Petaja-vaara, Kemi 

 Lappmark, about lat. 68° N., in May 1857. The people who obtained these did not know the 

 bird ; so that it appears to be a rare bird in Lapland. In recording the above fact in his 

 ' Ootheca Wolleyana,' Professor Newton adds the following editorial note: — "Mr. Wolley 

 suggests that ' the unusual numbers of several kinds of mice ' had attracted this species so far 

 beyond its usual limits. Previously to 1857, he was aware of only one instance of its occurrence 

 north of the Gulf of Bothnia. That happened on the 13th of September, 1855, when he and I 

 were approaching Haparanda, on the Swedish side of the Tornea river. We then saw, and for 

 some minutes watched, an undoubted Tinnunculus alaudarius hovering over a corn-field by the 

 road-side. Its occasional breeding further north was, however, known to Herr Wallengren 

 (Naumannia, 1855, p. 134)." 



Von Wright states that it is one of the commonest Hawks in Finland ; and Mayer says it is 

 common all over Livonia, as also in Denmark, according to Kjserbolling. It is likewise abundant 

 throughout Holland and the Netherlands. De Selys-Longchamps records it as everywhere 

 common in Belgium, inhabiting equally woods, plains, rocks, or old towers, and is one of the 

 greatest enemies of Pigeons. De la Fontaine, commenting on the above statement, says that he 

 has never noticed the fact, as his experience is that the Pigeons and Kestrels live and nest 

 together in the same walls in perfect harmony. All over Germany, as well as throughout France, 

 Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Sardinia, the Kestrel is a very common bird. 



With regard to its occurrence in Spain, Mr. Howard Saunders kindly sends us the accom- 

 panying note : — 



"Tinnunculus alaudarius is called in Spanish 'Cernicalo' and 'Primilla.' It is very 

 abundant throughout Spain, great numbers frequenting the wooded districts, where they nest 

 in the trees, often appropriating old Magpies' nests; but in many cases they evidently make 

 their own. In the mountain-ravines, where they deposit their eggs in holes of the rocks, they 

 are extremely numerous; but their numbers are particularly displayed in such cities as Seville 

 and Cordova, where many hundreds may be seen towards sunset hovering round the towers of 

 the Giralda and the Mezquita, the belfries being whitened with their excrement and paved with 

 their castings, which principally, indeed almost entirely, consist of remains of insects. In the 



