272 Bird Studies. 



ings of dusky below. The tail is like the back but barred with dusky or black. 

 It has been recorded from Greenland. 



The Kestrel is also a European bird that has been recorded once from 

 Massachusetts,. and so obtains a place in our fauna. It is a bird about four- 

 teen inches long. The male has the upper parts, except 

 Kestrel. xhe back and shoulders, leaden gray, which color also 



Falco tinnunculus Linn. ,, __,, •1111 1 



prevails on the tail. There is a black bar next to the ter- 

 minal white one on the tail. The back and shoulders are reddish brown, or 

 cinnamon, spotted with dusky. The forehead is buffy white. The under 

 parts vary, from whitish to buff, and are streaked with dusky, on the breast, 

 sides, and flanks. The female is reddish brown or cinnamon throughout 

 above, including the tail, and barred or streaked with dusky. Below she 

 resembles the male in coloring. 



This is a Western species, appearing occasionally as far east as Illinois.* 

 The adult male is a bird about seventeen inches and a half long, and the fe- 

 male is usually at least an inch and a half longer. The 

 Prairie Falcon, birds are light brown above with a strong grayish tinge 



Falco mexicanus Schleg. ° i-i 111 



and obscurely but broadly barred with paler ash brown or 

 bluish gray. The lower parts are white, with the sides and flanks streaked or 

 spotted with dusky brown. These birds are finely formed, in the true falcon 

 mould, rather slim but with obviously great power in the breast and wings. 

 They are characteristic birds of the Great Plains and remind one much of the 

 Peregrine Falcons in their flight and methods of capturing their prey, which 

 consists of the smaller mammals and birds, even those as large as Prairie 

 Chickens. 



The birds nest both on the shelves of cliffs and in hollows of trees. 

 They lay two or three eggs, which vary from cream white to light reddish 

 buff in ground color, sometimes only speckled but often heavily spotted with 

 warm shades of deep brown. They are almost two inches and a tenth long 

 and an inch and two thirds broad. 



The Prairie Falcon is found from the eastern border of the Great Plains 

 to the Pacific, and as far north as the northern boundary of the Western 

 United States. It winters in Kansas, Colorado, and southward. 



