FALCO TINNUNCULUS. 



KESTREL. 



Generic Character. See Falco chryfeatos* 

 Synonyms. 



Falgo tinnunculus. Lin. Syfl. 1, p, 12>], i6> Lnd, 

 Om. 1. p. 41. 98. 



Kestrel. Br. Zool. 1. 60. Lh. fol. p. 68. iah, A. 



Arci. ZooL 2. p. N, Lath Syn,^ 

 1.^,94.79. Ib.fupt.p.2^ Mont, 

 Orn. Di5i. Vol 1. Alhin's Birds, 3. 

 iab. ^ and 7. Bewick's Br. Birds^ 

 Ft. 1. p. 75. Maf. p, 77. Fern, 



I S fpecles weighs about ten ounces, is thirteen 

 inches in length, and twenty -eight in breadth. Bill iliort, 

 fharp and deeply notched \ cere yellow ; irides dark hazel ; 

 legs ftrong ; claws very long and fharp. 



The Kestrel is the moft common of the Britifh Hawks i 

 its principal food is mice, in queft of which it may frequently 

 be feen hovering in the air, and often is quite ftationary for a 

 confiderable time. When preffed by hunger it is remarkably 

 audacious, often pouncing at the birds ufed as decoys by 

 bird-catchers ; and we remember to have feen one lirike at 

 a blackbird confined in a cage, and fufpended againft the 



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