d'2 ornithological rambles. 



LETTER V 



" Sufferance is the badge of all oui tribe." 



Merchant of Ve.vice. 



The Kestrel or Windhover : Its unmerited Persecution : 

 Destructive to fcur-footed Yermin, Reptiles, &c. 

 — Seizure and Execution of a Rat — Serpent-killer 

 — Mr. Waterton on the Migration of the Wind- 

 hover — Problem and attempted Solution — Distri- 

 bution of the Kestrel — Periodical appearance " en 

 potence'' in Autumn — Probable Cause — Commis- 

 sariat Department — Reappearance of considerable 

 numbers in Spring. 



Of the various birds which figure undeservedly 

 on the black list of the gamekeeper, there is none 

 for which the benevolent author of the Essays* 

 has pleaded more eloquently than the poor kestrel 

 or windhover (i^a^co tinnunculus), and, I may add, 

 none more deserving of his powerful intercession. 

 Of all our Eaptores it is — perhaps with the excep- 

 tion of the barn-owl — the most efficient destroyer 

 of mice, and as a general check upon the increase 



* " Essays on Natural History," by C. Waterton, Esq. 



