152 BritisH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGs. 
is found also on the mountains of central and southern Europe; those to the 
furthest north migrating southwards in the autumn reach northern and central 
Africa. 
The adult male is slaty blue above, rufous on the nape, with a dark shaft to 
every feather; rufous on the under parts, with longitudinal streaks of blackish 
brown: tail with a broad dark band towards the tip, and with traces of other bars 
on the inner webs; beak bluish, darker at the tip; cere and legs yellow; claws 
black; irides dark brown: length ro inches. 
The adult female is dark brown above, all the feathers with blackish shaft 
stripes and edged and spotted with rufous, those on the crown being darkest; 
hind neck greyish white, with streaks of pale rufous; tail dark brown, with six 
rufous buff bands, and tipped with buffy white; chin and upper throat nearly pure 
white; rest of the under parts white, broadly striped with dark brown; under 
tail-coverts white, with narrow shaft stripes; thighs buffish; length 12 inches. 
Young birds resemble the female, but the crown and back are more rufous. 
Family—F.ALCONIDA. 
KESTREL. 
Faleo tinnunculus, LINN. 
HE Kestrel is, at the present day, the commonest representative of the 
Falconide in the British Islands; there is hardly any part of the country 
where he may not be recognised poised in the air hovering stationary with his 
head to the wind, presently closing his wings to drop like a stone upon some 
mouse or beetle his keen eyes have detected upon the ground beneath. He is to 
be met with everywhere upon the coast, where he nests upon the cliffs, sometimes 
in close neighbourhood to the formidable Peregrine; he is common upon the 
moors, as well as in woodlands and cultivated districts; and frequents all the 
