Page:The Natural History of Ireland vol1.djvu/84

 and the martins (Hirundo urbica) had been more numerous on that day at Wolf-hill, than at any time during the season.

Notwithstanding the numbers of these birds bred at Walton Hall, we are told that "during the winter there is scarcely a wind-hover to be found" there. Such, also, is said to be the case in the eastern parts of Mid Lothian ;* but Mr. Macgillivray remarks, that in the districts bordering the Frith of Forth, they are as numerous, perhaps even more so, in winter than in summer, adding, that probably, "like the merlin, this species merely mi- grates from the interior to the coast." In the north of Ireland generally, kestrels seem to be quite as numerous in winter as in summer, in their usual haunts.

I have observed this species to be not uncommon in Switzer- land and Italy. The first winch was seen, on our proceeding in H.M.S. Beacon from Malta to the Morea, at the end of April, 1841, was a single individual, which flew close past the vessel when sixty miles west of the Morea, and forty-five distant from Zante, the nearest land. We saw the kestrel about Navarino at the period just mentioned, and in the month of June met with it at the cliffs of an islet north-east of Port Naussa, in Paros, where it was believed to have an eyrie. When Dr. J.L. Drummond was, many years ago, in the Renown (74 gun ship), off Toulon, some hundreds of male kestrels, on their way from the south, alighted, quite exhausted, on the rigging, and so many were caught by the sailors, that for some time there was hardly a berth with- out its kestrel. The weather was moderate at the time. My friend kept one of them alive for several weeks by feeding it on salt meat, steeped for some time in fresh water. But none of the birds lived long, in consequence of no fresh food being obtain- able for them.

Falco tinnunculoides. — In a review which appeared in the Magazine of Zoology and Botany (vol. ii. p. 352), of the French Scientific Expedition to the Morea, the writer states that he had long been aware of this bird being common in Greece ; that it

Mr. Hepburn in Macg. Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 334.