118 
BIRDS OF LEICESTERSHIRE AND RUTLAND, 
specimen of the Red-footed Falcon, a young male, killed two or three miles 
from Leicester about two months ago. It is now in the Museum of that 
town. The Curator bought it for a trifle from the person who had it in the 
flesh. It was shot by a young man who lives at Belgrave, a suburb of 
Leicester. Robert Widdowson (Melton Mowbray).” The identical specimen is 
still in the Museum, and I have been fortunate enough to find the man who 
shot it, Thos. Adcock of Syston Street, lately returned from America, who 
says he was so nervous when he first saw it, thinking it was something rare, 
that he shot at it twice without effect ; the second time it flew right away over 
the fields and gardens, but finally returned and alighted on a little heap of 
something, when, at the third attempt, he succeeding in shooting it. I am 
pleased to verify this note, about which I have now no doubt, and therefore 
cancel my previous remarks (see ‘ Zool.,’ 1886, p. 166). 
KESTREL. Tinnuncuhts alaudarius (Gmelin). 
“ Stannel ” (i.e, Stand-Gale ? ), “ Windhover.” 
Resident, and generally distributed. — Harley recorded that he had seen it 
attack the Starling, and bear off the Black Thrush and its congener, but that it 
appears to feed much on the smaller kinds of mammals and various Goleoptera, 
especially the Cockchafer. Mr. Macaulay considers that, since the passing of the 
Wild Birds Protection Act, this species has become commoner, which tallies with 
my own observation. In the stomachs of Kestrels I have dissected I have never 
found anything but remains of Beetles and Mice. Mr. G, H. Storer informs me 
that, whilst Snipe-shooting with some friends at Arnesby, in December, 1882, they 
were entering a shed, when they saw a Lark flying towards them, hotly pursued 
by a Kestrel. The Lark entered the barn, and dropped, trembling with fright, 
into the straw at the feet of one of the party, just as its swift pursuer reached 
the door. Seeing the group, the Kestrel veered off, and, a few seconds later, the 
Lark recovered, and left also. (Noted also ‘ Transactions Leicester Lit. and Phil. 
Soc.,’ Jan., 1889, p. 26). 
This species builds quite close to Leicester, at Knighton, where I procured, on 
3rd July, 1883, a nest and five young. Johnson, keeper at Laughton Lodge, Rugby, 
sent me, in May, 1885, an old Carrion-Crow’s nest, in which a Kestrel had laid 
five eggs, light-coloured and very handsome. I weighed two of them when quite 
fresh ; one was a little more than | oz., the other exactly | oz. Mr. Davenport 
writes : — “ My experience of Kestrels is that they are more sensitive than the 
Sparrow-Hawk, forsaking their nest if tampered with. If I find a nest with three 
eggs, and take one only, it is almost a certainty the bird will not only forsake, 
but will cast away the remaining eggs as well. I found a white egg at Billesdon 
Coplow in May, 1882.” This bird builds early in some seasons, and Mr. Davenport 
records that, in 1885, he took a nest on 18th April containing six eggs, at 
Slawston Gorse. 
