282 FALCONID^ TINNUNCULUS 



Inshlangeen {i.e., Shangani river) November (Ayres) ; German 

 south-west Africa — Otjimbinque, February, scarce in Damaraland 

 (Andersson). 



Habits.— The Lesser Kestrel only visits this country to escape 

 the winter of the northern hemisphere. It is almost invariably 

 found in flocks often numbering many hundreds. These wander 

 about the country in an irregular manner pursuing the flights of 

 locusts on which they chiefly subsist. They catch the locusts on 

 the wing, striking at them with their feet and conveying them to 

 their mouth with their claws. They are tame birds, and after 

 feeding and gorging themselves a number of them may often be 

 seen perched on high trees. Mr. Marshall gives the following 

 account. " This little Kestrel is fairly common during the rainy 

 season, usually occurring in flocks which sometimes attain con- 

 siderable proportions. When they hover they flutter their wings 

 a good deal more than does T. rupicoloides, and it is a pretty 

 sight to see twenty or thirty of them working systematically over 

 an open piece of ground. Stomachs contained grasshoppers, 

 centipedes, and beetles, and one bird was crammed with hunting 

 spiders." 



511. Tinnunculus vespertinus. Western Bed-legged Kestrel. 



Falco vespertinus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 129 (1766) ; Sharpe and 



Dresser, B. Eur. yi, p. 93, pi. 382 (1871). 

 Erythropus vespertinus, Gurney, Proa. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 2 ; id. in 



Andersson' s B. Damaraland, p. 15 (1872) ; id. Ibis, 1882, p. 146 ; 



Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 145 (1896). 

 Cerclineis vespertina, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. i, p. 443 (1874) ; id. ed. 



Layard's B. S. Afr. p. 65 (1875). 



Description. Adult male. — General colour above, dark, becoming 

 almost black on the head and tail, and lighter and more silvery on 

 the wings; below, silvery-slate throughout, except the thighs, 

 abdomen and under tail-coverts, which are cinnamon-rufous ; under 

 wing-coverts slaty-black. 



Iris light brown ; bill yellowish-horn, blackish at the tip ; cere, 

 orbits, and feet bright brownish-red, claws yellowish- white, horn 

 coloured at tips. 



Length 12-5 ; wing 9-25 ; tail 5-0 ; culmen 0-70 ; tarsus 1-20. 



The female differs from the male ; crown rufous ; the rest of the 

 upper surface a silvery-grey everywhere barred with black; tail 



