mtmmmmm 



O R D. I. G E N. I. FALCON. 



S p. XIX. FEMALE KESTRIL. 



PL 19*. 



The female keftrll is larger than the male, weighing twelve ounces, and 

 being fixteen inches in length, and two feet four inches in breadth. The back 

 and wings are nearly of the fame colour as in the male, but paler and crofTed 

 "with numerous lines of black: tail the fame, with a bar of black near the end: 

 head pale red brown, ftreaked with black : bill blue : eyes dark brown : cere, 

 and legs, yellow, as in the male. 



This is a very common bird in the meadows and open trafts of land in Eng- 

 land. It breeds in the hollows of trees, holes of rocks, old towers, and 

 ruined buildings, and generally lays four eggs. This is the hawk that we fo 

 frequently fee hovering in the air, for a confiderable time, over one place, 

 fearching with piercing fight for field mice, or for larks or other fmall birds 

 hidden among the grafs ; and is ufed by bird-catchers to dare larks, that is to 

 hover over the affrighted birds on the ground, that they may have time to draw 

 a net over them. 



For the egg, fee PI. IV. Fig. 3. 



