SIX MONTHS’ BIRD COLLECTING IN EGYPT. 137 
14. WESTERN RED-LEGGED FALcon, Falco vespertinus 
Linn. 
I purchased an immature one at Damietta. 
15. MERLIN, Falko esalon, Tunstal. 
Middle Egypt appears to be the habitat of the Merlin, 
but I did not find it so abundant as some have done. All 
that we saw were, I believe, cocks, which agrees with former 
observations. 
16. KESTREL, 7innunculus alaudarius (G. R. Gray) ; 
“ Sakre ahmar balad.” 
In a family so largely represented as the Accipitres, the 
familiar English Kestrel was by far the commonest, and so 
tame were they, in the Delta especially, that I have often 
seen stones thrown at them before they would fly away. 
They were less common and decidedly shyer in Upper 
Egypt, probably because they are more exposed there to 
the incursions of the gun-carrying tourist. 
I think that in North Africa Hawks go to nest earlier 
than with us. Already in January the Kestrels were paired, 
and some of them nesting, for the most part choosing crude 
brick walls and palm trees. One of my companions saw 
one feeding its young on the 13th of January at the Barrage, 
that beautiful bridge which spans the Nile at its bifurcation. 
They are plucky birds, these Egyptian Kestrels. Once I 
winged a Senegal Dove, and almost before it touched the 
earth, a hovering and hungry Kestrel bound to it, nor did 
he at once give up possession to the lad who went for it. A 
Sparrow-Hawk served me the same trick one day, but it is 
more remarkable with a Kestrel. 
It is said that Egyptian Kestrels are smaller than English ; 
