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AI.T.KX’S NATURAT.IST’S LIBRARY. 
Characters 'I'o distinguish the Lesser Kestrel from the 
ordinary Kestrel of England, the most distinctive characters 
are the whitish claws, and the uniform rufous back in the 
male, while the female can only be told from the female of 
C. tinnuncubis by its smaller size and by its whitish claws. 
Range in Great Britain.— This species certainly deserves a 
place in our avifauna, for, although it was not admitted to 
that rank in 1871 by Professor Newton, since that dale so 
many examples of the Lesser Kestrel have been identified 
within British limits, that one may reasonably believe that it 
occurs more often than is generally suspected, and that it is 
often mistaken for the Common Kestrel. At least four instances 
of the occurrence of the Lesser Kestrel in Great Britain are 
known to have taken place. The first was shot in Yorkshire in 
November 1867, and in May, 1877, another adult male was 
captured near Dover. Since then it has been obtained near 
Shankill in Co. Dublin, in P'ebruary, 1891, and also in the Scilly 
Islands in March of the same year. Two specimens which had 
been captured at sea in the Mediterranean, in April, 1894, 
escaped from their captors, one in Northumberland and the 
other in Belfast, and Mr. Robert Patterson wrote to the “ Ibis” 
to notify the fact, in case a Lesser Kestrel should be shot, but 
I have not heard that they were ever seen again. 
Range outside tlie British Islands — The Lesser Kestrel winters 
in South Africa, whither it goes with the flocks of other small 
insect-eating Hawks. It returns in the spring to Europe and 
is plentiful in the Mediterranean countries, arriving in February 
in Spain. A few pass the winter in the south of Europe. It 
is only an occasional visitor to Southern France, but has been 
taken in Germany and in Heligoland, as well as in the British 
Islands. Its eastern range extends to Central Asia, and it has 
of late years become very numerous in the district of Orenburg 
in Southern Russia. 
Hahits. — In the countries of Southern Europe, and especially 
in Spain, the Lesser Kestrel is a very common bird, commenc- 
ing to breed about the end of April, and laying its eggs about 
the middle of May. Its food, according to Mr. Howard Saun- 
ders, consists of insects, especially cockchafers and other beetles, 
