FALCO TINNUNCULUS. 
KESTREL. 
Generic Character. Falco chryfeatos* 
' ■ ^ 
Synonyms, t 
Falco tinnunculus. Lin, Syji. i. p. 127. 16. Ind. 
Orn, 1. />. 41. 98. 
Kestrel. Br. ZooL 1. 60. Ih. foL p. 68. iah. A. 
Ar5l. ZooL 2. p« 226^ K Lath Syn. 
1. p. 94. 79. Ib. fupt,p. 25. Mont. 
Orn. Dm. Vol 1. Alhin's Birds, 3. 
iak 5 and 7. Bewick's Br. Birds, 
Ft. 1. 75- p. 77. i^^^. 
Th i S fpecies weighs about ten ounces, Is thirteea 
inches in length, and twenty -eight in breadth. Bill fhort, 
£harp and deeply notched; cere yellow; irides dark hazel; 
legs ftrong ; claws very long and ftiarp. 
The Kestrel is the moft common of the Britifli Hawks ; 
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 flrike at 
a blackbird confined in a cage, and fufpended againft the 
front 
