British Birds. 
1 26 
THE COMMON 
KESTREL. 
(Ccrchneis 
tinnunculus). 
precisely alike and possess no character by which they can be told apart. When fully 
adult the Grey Gyr- Falcon bears great resemblance to a Peregrine Falcon, but the 
latter has the tail darker towards the end, whereas in the Gyr-Falcon it is of the 
same grey shade throughout. The toes in the latter bird have also different propor- 
tions, the outer and inner toes being about equal in length, as in the Kestrels, 
whereas in the Peregrine the outer toe is decidedly longer than the inner one. 
A young bird of the Grey Gyr-Falcon was shot in Suffolk in October, 1867, and 
an adult bird from Sussex is in Mr. Borrer’s collection. The home of the species 
reaches from Scandinavia across Siberia to Arctic America. The nest is built on 
trees or on ledges of rocks, and the eggs are four in number, either entirely 
clouded with light reddish-brown or having a reddish-white ground blotched 
and spotted with rufous. 
Like the 
Gyr - Falcons, 
the Kestrels 
have rather 
weak feet, the 
outer and inner toes being equal 
in length, but the wings are 
longer and more pointed than 
in those birds, and resemble 
those of the true Falcons. The 
male Kestrel may be told by its 
blue-grey head and tail, the lat- 
ter having a black band before 
the end. The female is entirely 
rufous above, banded with black, 
this being also the colour of the 
tail ; the head is streaked with 
black. Young birds resemble 
the old female. The Common Kestrel, or ‘Windhover,’ is found everywhere in the 
British Islands, nesting in woods in the interior and in cliffs on the sea-shore. It is 
also found over the greater part of Europe in summer, and extends to Siberia, passing 
the winter months in Africa and India, but being resident in the Himalayas. As a rule 
the food of the Kestrel consists of mice and insects, and it is only when hard-pressed 
for food for its young that it resorts to the killing of small birds ; it is, on the whole, a 
most useful species. It generally adopts the old nest of some other bird in a tree, and 
when breeding in cliffs appears to make no nest at all. The eggs vary from three to 
seven in number, and they are generally clouded with rufous and chestnut all over, 
though occasionally eggs are found in which the ground-colour is white and the rufous 
blotches are confined to the larger end. The length is about one-and-a-half inches. 
The Common Kestrel. 
