. The royal natural history. nging blue first and the head last. Ourillustration represents a female in which the bars are not so well defined as insome specimens. A further specialisation in the kestrel would involve a similarchange of colour in the female; and to this there is an approximation in a darksouthern race, where the rump and part of the tail of the hen-bird tend to kestrel ranges over the whole of Europe and Northern Asia, migrating in FALCONS. 189 winter into the north of China, India, and North-Eastern Africa, and occasionallystraying into the western and southern parts
. The royal natural history. nging blue first and the head last. Ourillustration represents a female in which the bars are not so well defined as insome specimens. A further specialisation in the kestrel would involve a similarchange of colour in the female; and to this there is an approximation in a darksouthern race, where the rump and part of the tail of the hen-bird tend to kestrel ranges over the whole of Europe and Northern Asia, migrating in FALCONS. 189 winter into the north of China, India, and North-Eastern Africa, and occasionallystraying into the western and southern parts of the latter continent. It is replacedin the New World by the so-called American sparrow-hawk {F. sjmrvorius), inwhich the centre of the crown of the head of the male is rufous, and thewing-coverts Ijlue with bhick spots. Although its chief food consists of miceand voles, the kestrel occasionally kills small birds, and will also eat frogs, beetles,worms, and grubs, while in India it frequently devours lizards. That it will. THE KESTREL (J nat. hUL occasionally kill a young partridge or chicken is doubtless true, but such smallrobberies are far more than counterbalanced by the benefits it confers on theagriculturist by the destruction of liosts of pernicious rodents, and it ouglittherefore to be carefully preserved, instead of being ruthlessly shot down. Altlioughoccasionally placed in a hollow tree, the nest is more generally situated amongrocks or old Imildings, while still more frequently the deserted nest of someother bird, such as a crow, magpie, or raven is taken advantage of. The eggs,usually four f)r five, but sometimes six in number, may be either mottled all overwith brownish Iod or orange, or blotchcil with these colours upon a liglit are generally hatched late in April, or early in the following month. 19© DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY. The lesser kestrel {F. cenchris) is an inhabitant of Southern and South-Eastern Europe, migrating in winter to South Africa;
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