Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/65

 K E S K E S 53 was greatly impaired by the rise of Odessa and Taganrog ; and in 1820 the fortress was dismantled. Opened to foreign commerce and made a quarantine station, it attained a certain degree of prosperity, but again suffered severely during the Crimean War. Archreologically Kertch is of particular interest, the kurgaus or sepulchral mounds of the town and vicinity having yielded a rich variety of the most beautiful works of art. Since 1825 (the date of Blaramberg s discoveries) a large number of tombs have been opened. In the so-called Zolotai (i.e., Golden) kurgan, or Abtrim- oba, was found a great stone vault similar in style to an Egyptian pyramid ; and within, among many objects of minor note, were golden dishes adorned with griffins and beautiful arabesques. In the Kul-oba, or Mound of Cinders (opened in 1830-31 by Dubrux), was a similar tomb, in which were found what would appear to be remains of one of the kings of the Bosphorus, of his queen, his horse, and his groom. The ornaments and furniture were of the most costly kind ; the king s bow and buckler were of gold; his very whip intertwined with gold ; the queen had golden diadems, necklace, and breast-jewels, and at her feet lay a golden vase. In the Pavlovskoi kurgan (opened in 1858) was the tomb of a Greek lady, containing among other articles of dress and decoration a pair oMine leather boots (a unique discovery) and a beautiful vase on which is painted the return of Persephone from Hades and the setting out of Triptolemus for Attica, In a neighbouring j tomb was what is believed to be &quot; the oldest Greek mural painting ! which has come down to us, &quot;dating probably from the 4th century | Ji. c. Among the minor objects discovered in the kurgans perhaps the most noteworthy are the fragments of engraved boxwood, the j only examples known of the art taught by the Sicyonian painter Pamphilus. See Seymour s Russia on the Black Sea and Sea of Azoff. 1855 ; Telfer, The Crimea, 1876 ; Brulin, Tchernomore, 1852-77, Odessa, 1878 ; SosnoRoroff, 1 utero- ilitel po Kruimit (&quot; Guide to the Crimea&quot;), Odessa, 18SO ; Gillcs, Antiquitet du &amp;lt; Boaphore Cimmerien, 1854; Macphcrson, Antiquities of Kertch, 1857; Compte reii ltt tie la Cominifsion Imp. ArcMologique, St Petersburg ; L. Stejihani, Die Alterthumer rom Kertsch, 1880 ; C. T. Newton, Essays on Art and Archxoloijy, 1880. KESMAPJv, or KASMARK, an ancient town in the cis- Tisian county of Szepes (Zips), Hungary, is situated on the Popracl, 11 miles north-west of LOcse (Leutschau), in 49 8 N. lat, 20 28 E. long. The trade is chiefly in linen, wine, and cereals. Owing to the vicinity of the Carpathians the rainfall is high, and the climate frequently tempestuous and inclement. At the end of 1880 the population amounted to 4477, chiefly Germans and Slovaks. Kesmark (Latin Forum Cascorum) is probably a Mngyarized form of the German Kiiscmarkt. In 1380, during the reign of Louis I., it was raised to the dignity of a royal free town. As the most important of the Saxon settlements in the north of Hungary, Kesmark in 1440 became the seat of the counts of Szepes (Zips). In 1464 King Matthias Corvinus granted the town the so-called jus gladii, its civic blazon, and the right of holding weekly markets. In 1530 Kesmark fell into the power of John Zapolya, an 1 later it suffered much at the hands of the Polish leader Hieronymus Lasky, and from Sebastian Tokiili. In 1655 the town was re-established by the emperor Ferdinand 111. in all its ancient rights ; and it remained a royal free town until the recent administrative changes of 1876. An&quot; international exhibition of linen goods was held at Kesmark in the summer of 1881. KESTREL (French Cresserelle or Crecertlle, Old French Quercerelle and Quercelle, in Burgundy Crisfel), the English name 1 for one of the smaller Falcons, originat ing probably from its peevish and languid cry. This bird, though in the form of its bill and length of its wings one of the true Falcons, and by many ornithologists placed among them under its Linnrcan name of Falco tinnunculus, is by others referred to a distinct genus Tinnuncnlus as T. alaudariusihe last being an epithet wholly inappropriate. We have here a case in which the propriety of the custom which requires the establishment of a genus on structural characters may seem open to question. The differences of structure which separate Tinnuncnlus from Falco are of the slightest, and, if insisted upon, in the way some systematists have done, must lead to including in the former birds which obviously differ from Kestrels in all but a few characters arbitrarily chosen ; and yet, if 1 Other English names are Windhover and Standpale (the last often corrupted into Stonegale and Stannell), from a habit to be presently mentioned. structural characters be set aside, the Kestrels form an assemblage readily distinguishable by several peculiarities from all other Falconidse, and an assemblage that the instinct of real ornithologists (though this is treading upon dangerous ground) does not hesitate to separate from the true Falcons of the genus Falco, with its subsidiary groups tEsalon. Hi/potriorchis, and the rest (see FALCON, voL ix. p. 2). Scarcely any one outside the walls of an orni thological museum or library would doubt for a moment whether any bird shewn to him were a Kestrel or not ; and Mr Gurney believes (Ibis, 1881, p. 277) that the aggre gation of species placed by Mr Sharpe (Cat. Birds Brit. Museum, i. pp. 423-448) under the generic designation of Cerchneis (which should properly be Tinnunculus) in cludes &quot; three natural groups sufficiently distinct to be treated as at least separate subgenera, bearing the name of Dissodedes, Tinnunculus, and JSrythropus.&quot; Of these we may say that the first and last are not at all Kestrels, but are perhaps rather related to the Hobbies (Hypotriorchis). The ordinary Kestrel of Europe, Falco tinnunculus or Tinnunculus alaudarim, is by far the commonest bird of prey in the British Islands, and is too common and well- known a bird to need any description. It is almost entirely a summer migrant, coming from the south in early spring and departing in autumn, though examples (which are nearly always found to be birds of the year) occasionally occur in winter, some arriving on the eastern coast in autumn. It is most often observed while practising its habit of hanging in tbe air for a minute or two in the same spot, by means of short and rapid beats of its wings, as, with head pointing to windward and expanded tail, it is look ing out for prey, which consists chiefly of mice, but it will at times take a small bird, and the remains of frogs, insects, and even earth-worms have been found in its crop. It generally breeds in the deserted nest of a Crow or Pie, but frequently in rocks, ruins, or even in hollow trees laying four or five eggs, mottled all over with dark brownish- red, sometimes tinged with orange and at other times with purple. Though it may occasionally snatch up a young Partridge or Pheasant, 2 the Kestrel is quite the most harm less bird-of-prey, if it be not, fro.n its destruction of mice and cockchafers, a most beneficial species. It is a species of very wide range, extending over nearly the whole of Europe from 68 N. lat., and the greater part of Asia though the form which inhabits Japan and is abundant in north-eastern China has been by some writers deemed distinct and called T. japonicus and it also pervades the greater part of Africa, becoming, however, scarce in southern latitudes, and unknown beyond Fantee on the west and Mombasa on the east coast (Ibi, 1881, p. 457). The southern countries of Europe have also another and smaller species of Kestrel, T. tinnunculoides (the T. cenchris and T. naumanni of some writers), which is widely- spread in Africa and Asia, though specimens from India and China are distinguished as T. pekinensis. Three other species are found in Africa as well T. rupicola, T. rupicoloides, and T. alopex the first of which is a common bird in the Cape Colony, while the others occur in the interior. Some of the islands of the Ethiopian region have peculiar species of Kestrel, as the T. neu toni of Madagascar, T. punctatns of Mauritius, and T. gracili* of the Seychelles ; while, on the opposite side, the Kestrel of the Cape Yerd Islands has been separated as T. neylec- tus. &quot; When what are called &quot; tame &quot; Pheasants are bred, a Kestrel will often contract the bad habit of infesting the coops and carrying cff the young birds. This evil may easily be stopped, but it should not lead to the relentless persecution of the species, especially when it is remem bered that the Kestrel is in the first place attracted to the spot by the presence of the mice which come to cat the Pheasants food.