FALCONIDA, 357 
THE LESSER KESTREL. 
FALco. CENCHRIS, Naumann. 
The claim of this species to a place in the British list was formerly 
received with suspicion, but no fewer than five occurrences are now 
(1898) authenticated. An example in the York Museum was 
shot in the middle of November 1867, by Mr. John Harrison of 
Wilstrop Hall, who noticed the bird flying about his farm; in May 
1877 an adult male, with one leg injured, was captured alive near 
Dover, and presented by Mr. E. P. Robinson to the Museum of 
that town ; on February 2oth 1891 an adult male was shot near 
Dublin ; early in March of the same year another adult male was 
obtained near Tresco, Scilly Islands ; and lastly a female is recorded 
by Mr. G. Sim as having been shot at Boynalie, Aberdeenshire, on 
October 25th 1897. It may be added that two examples, which 
had been captured in the Mediterranean, escaped from the s.s. 
‘Irthington’: one of them on April 27th 1894, near Blyth, and the 
other on May sth, near Belfast (Ibis 1894, p. 451). 
It will not appear so remarkable that the Lesser Kestrel should 
occasionally visit our islands, when we consider that it is a regular 
