The nearly cosmopolitan genus _Tinnunculus_ (Kestrel), so called from its querulous "bell-like" note, is separated from _Falco_ rather by pattern of colour than structural considerations. _T. alaudarius_, the most plentiful of the British Falconidae–which is occasionally seen in winter near its breeding-quarters, though chiefly a summer immigrant–ranges from the Atlantic Islands and lat. 68° N. in Europe, through Asia to Japan and China, reaching Fantee and Mombasa in Africa, and having been once recorded from Massachusetts in America. The sub-species _neglectus_, _japonicus_, and _saturatus_ are darker than the type; wherein the male is chiefly bluish-grey above, and buff with black spots and streaks below; the chestnut back being spotted with black, and the white-tipped tail having a broad subterminal black band. The female has rufous upper parts, with dark bars continued down the tail. The Kestrel or Wind-hover is a shy arboreal bird of somewhat crepuscular tendencies, generally observed circling gracefully aloft in readiness to drop upon its prey, or "hovering" with rapid vibrations of the long wings, the tail expanded and the head to windward. Small mammals and coleoptera furnish most of the food, a few birds–very seldom game–lizards, frogs, worms, grasshoppers, and insect-larvae varying the diet. Its great utility is now generally recognised, while sensible keepers should be fast learning that all Hawks and Owls are not vermin. It rarely builds its own nest, but occupies deserted habitations of Crows, Pies, and other birds, relined sparingly with twigs and grass, or scrapes a cup in the soil of some ledge or cavity of a cliff. At times hollow trees, ruins, and chalk-pits are chosen, or even level ground in the fens–pellets of bones, feathers, fur, and beetles' elytra commonly marking the spot. The four to six eggs are creamy-white, blotched or thickly mottled with bright or dull red. _T. cenchris_, the Lesser Kestrel, with white claws, and unspotted back in the male, has four or five times {176}wandered to England, and ranges from the Pyrenees, Styria, and the Orenburg district to Bokhara and North Africa. It sometimes occurs further north, and in winter reaches Cape Colony; the Indian and Chinese race, distinguished as _T. pekinensis_, having strayed to the Transvaal. _T. sparverius_, the "Sparrow-Hawk" of America from the Great Slave Lake to Colombia, which occasionally feeds on snakes, and breeds in Woodpeckers' holes, has two sub-species, _T. cinnamominus_ of Central and South America and _T. caribbaearum_ of the Antilles. _T. dominicensis_ (_sparverioïdes_) inhabits Cuba and St. Domingo, and occurs in Florida; _T. isabellinus_ ranges from Georgia to northern South America; _T. alopex_ from Nubia to Bogos-Land; _T. rupicolus_ and the more northern _T. rupicoloïdes_ occupy South Africa; _T. gracilis_ the Seychelles; _T. punctatus_ Mauritius; _T. newtoni_ Madagascar; _T. moluccensis_ the Moluccas and the Sunda Islands; _T.