SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 
401 
together in a plate. In that Prospectus, Mr. Gould proposed that each part of his 
work should exhibit, on the average, twenty-jive species. Hitherto he has failed 
in the performance of this important pledge. Fortunately, however, for his own 
credit and for the interest of his subscribers, the hour of redemption is not yet 
irrevocably past. 
The analysis upon which we are about to enter will, ordinarily, comprehend the 
specific and, whenever the institution of new genera may require, the generic 
characters of each bird, as traced by Mr. Gould ; and all the more novel or 
valuable information which may be gleaned from his accurate and masterly 
descriptions; the synonjuns of the species in the English, Latin, French, Italian, 
and German languages; and occasional remarks cn the new systems of ornitholo¬ 
gical arrangement and nomenclature, as proposed by modern writers, and more 
especially by an able, but anonymous, contributor to The Analyst; whose labours 
adorn our last and present numbers. The luminous descriptions of Temminck, 
and the iconographical productions of Selby, Werner, Meyer, and other of the 
more successful and celebrated delineators of the bird-class will also frequently be 
referred to. 
Part I.—Presents a figure of the Lesser Kestrel, Falco tinnunculoides ,—- 
Faucon Cresserellette, Fr. —Falco di-terre-diverso, It. —Distinguished from the 
common European species, F. tinnunculus , by, 1st., the extension of the wing to 
the extremity of the tail; 2d., absence of spots from the superior part of the 
plumage; 3d., perfect whiteness of the claws; and 4th., marked and constant 
inferiority of size. The adult female, somewhat larger than the male, so closely 
resembles the female of F. tinnunculus , as only to be distinguishable by attention 
to the first, third , and fourth points of specific difference, above traced. She lays 
four eggs ; differing little, in size and colour, from those of the common Kestrel. 
F. tinnunculoides inhabits the Southern and Eastern regions of Europe, and preys 
upon the smaller Mammifera and birds, but principally upon the larger species of 
Coleopterous and Hymenopterous insects, which it captures, with almost unerring 
precision of aim, upon the wing. No specimen of it has as yet been recorded as 
taken or seen in the British islands. The propriety of constituting a new genus, 
which, with the two Kestrels, shall include F. rupicolus , F. spervarius , and u several 
other species, of America and its adjacent islands,” is cursorily adverted to by Mr. 
Gould. His figure of our present subject is admirably drawn and coloured. 
Werner’s corresponding plate, given in the second Livraison of the Atlas des 
Oiseaux d’Europe, will not, for one moment, sustain comparison with it. Might 
not a more eligible specific designation than tinnunculoides be conferred upon this 
species; distinguished as it is, from its most nearly-allied congener, by greater 
length of wing, and whiteness of claw ? This is a point too knotty for us to 
decide upon. We leave it, contented with having thrown out the mere hint, to 
