A CGIP1TRES. FALCON I DM. searching for its food, and the shortness of its wings compared
F alco t in n u n c u l u s , Linnaeus*.
THE KESTREL, OR WINDHOVER.
Falco tinnunculus.
T h e K e s t r e l is the most common species of the British
Falconidce, and from its peculiar habits, which place it very
often in view, it is also, as might he expected, the best
known. I t is handsome in shape, attractive in colour, and
graceful in its motions in the air ; though from its mode of
* Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 127 (1766).
with the other small species already figured, it departs
from the characters of the true Falcons. I t is best known,
and that too at any moderate distance, by its habits of sustaining
itself in the air in the same place by means of a
short but rapid motion of the wings, wdiile its powerful eyes
search the surface beneath for prey. It has acquired the
name of Windhover from its habit of remaining with outspread
tail suspended in the air, the head on these occasions
always pointing to windward ; and it is also called Stonegall,
or Stannell. By many authorities the Kestrel has been
separated from the genus Falco, and held to be the type of
the genus Tinnunculus, in which case the present species is
called Tinnunculus alaudarius.
Mice form the principal part of the food of the Kestrel;
and it appears to obtain them by dropping suddenly upon them.
Montagu says that he never found any feathers in the stomach
of this species; hut it is certain that it does occasionally
kill and devour small birds, and at times the young of larger
ones. The remains of frogs, coleopterous insects, their
larvie, and earth-worms have been found in their stomachs;
and Selby, on the authority of an eye-witness, has recorded
the fact of the Kestrel hawking cockchafers late in the evening.
The observer watched the bird through a glass, and “ saw
him dart through a swarm of the insects, seize one in each
claw, and eat them while flying. He returned to the charge
again and again. I ascertained it beyond a doubt, as I
afterwards shot him.”
Among the many interesting communications on birds
which have appeared from the pen of Waterton, and from
his own observations, is one on the habits of the Windhover,
in which the value of the mouse-destroying propensities of
this friend to the farmer is clearly pointed out.
In spring the Kestrel frequently takes possession of the
nest of a Crow or a Magpie, in which to deposit its eggs.
Sometimes these birds build in high rocks, or on old towers,
in ruined buildings, and, though rarely, in the trunk of a
hollow tree, laying four or five eggs, mottled all over with