TINNUNCULUS ALAUDARIUS.
Kestrel.

Falco tinnunculus, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. pe tee

aureus, Klein, Av., 49, 52, 53.—Id. Ov. t. Vi. fig. 4.
interstinctus, M‘Clell. Proc. of Zool. Soc. 1839, 154.
fasciatus, Retz. Faun. Suec., p. 70.

—— brunneus, Bechst. Taschenb. Deutsch., tom. i. p. 38.
—— alaudarius, Gmel. Syst. Nat., tom. i. pe 279)

Accipiter alaudarius, Briss. Orn., tom. i. p. 379.

 

 

 

tumunculus, Briss. Orn., tom. i. p. 393.
Tinnunculus alaudarius, Vieill.
interstinctus, Gray, Gen. of Birds, vol. i. Deezieesparse
Cerchneis tinnunculus, Bonap. Comp. List of Eur. and N. Amer. Birds, p. 5.

 

So much has been written respecting the habits and economy of the Kestrel by both British and Continental
authors, that it will not be necessary to give any lengthened details on these points, as they must be well
known to every one at all acquainted with the history of our native birds; I shall therefore conten) myself
by stating all that it is necessary to say respecting it in as succinct a manner as may be. First, then, as
to its distribution : no one of the British Falcons and Hawks is so widely and so generally spread over England,
Ireland, and Scotland—every locality being alike frequented, whether it be barren wastes, heathy moorlands,
or districts under cultivation; on the continent of Europe it is equally diffused from east to west, and from
south to north ; it is justas abundant throughout Africa northward of the Tropic, Asia Minor, and the entire
peninsula of India, from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin ; and that its range extends even still further east
has been proved by the receipt of specimens collected by Mr. Swinhoe in China, which do not materially
differ from those killed in England. Why are Kestrels so numerous when compared with other Falcons and
Hawks? Our acquaintance with them tells us that of all the members of the Falconide they are the most
omnivorous, and that instead of confining themselves to birds and small quadrupeds, insects, which are preyed
upon almost indiscriminately, form a considerable part of their diet ; and hence, as the abundance of this kind of
food is greater, the greater is the number both of the individuals and of the various species of Kestrel to which
the generic name of Tinnunculus has been given. But to return to our own bird, the only one of its genus
which visits Great Britain: what are its habits ? what are its peculiarities? The first and most striking is
undoubtedly its manner of hovering and sustaining itself in the air at one fixed position. Few, I conceive, who
have left the town, the mansion, or the cottage, and gone out for a country ramble, but must have noticed
a stationary object between them and the sky. This is the Kestrel in pursuit of his daily calling, scan-
ning the earth for a mouse, an insect, a lizard, or, if it be the season of summer, a young lark or
other bird. For several seconds (sometimes for a minute or more) this speck in the sky appears motionless ;
his next movement will tell us if his penetrating eye has been attracted by some living object below; for
if so, he descends like a stone towards the ground; if not, his beautifully constructed wings bear him
away in a succession of graceful sweeps to another part of the heath or common, where he again enacts the
scene I have endeavoured to describe, but which will perhaps be rendered more intelligible by a reference
to the accompanying Plate, where the bird figured is shown to be a male by the black bar across the end of
its outspread silvery tail. Independently of these peculiar aérial evolutions, the Kestrel sometimes gives chase
to small birds, or hunts near the ground for the nestling partridge, or perhaps a leveret ; but this is not the
rule, and pray let not my mentioning that he occasionally destroys a partridge chick be arraigned against
him, and his doom sealed in the mind of every keeper of game ; rather consider the good he undoubtedly
performs by destroying the voracious Shrew, the Field-Mouse, the young Weasel, Snake, and Adder, all of
Shiehheias been known to kill. “In summer,” says Mr. Selby, “ the Cockchafer supplies to this species

and the following curious account Is given by an eye-witness of the fact.

an object of pursuit and food ;
ccupation entirely new

1 seeing cestr igaged in an oO
‘I had,’ says he, ‘ the pleasure, this summer, of seeing the Kestrel engag

i 1 im throug ass saw him dart
to me, hawking after Cockchafers late in the evening. I watched him through a ce and sé 4 :
through a swarm of the insects, seize one in each claw, and eat them whilst flying. He revised to the

a
I ascertained it beyond a doubt, as I afterwards shot him. In taking its prey,

ashing, low, skimming flight

charge again and again. see
the Kestrel neither affects the bold, impetuous swoop of the Peregrine, nor the ¢ eae ;
of the Sparrow-Hawk. In his disposition it is more tame and docile, or less bold than other Falcons. In
confirmation of which trait in his nature I may cite the
recorded in the ‘ Zoologist’ by the Rev. H. H. Crewe, of Bre

following interesting instance, which has been
adsall Rectory, Derbyshire :—‘* About four