62 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



fore went into the house for my gun, and return- 

 ing in a few minutes, found him still engaged, 

 and so entirely was his attention absorbed by 

 his sport, that I had no difficulty in walking up 

 and shooting him directly. The stomach con- 

 tained a mass of half-digested grasshoppers, and 

 the proventriculus was literally crammed with 

 them, and with nothing else.* Food of this kind 

 of course soon becomes scarce as the autumn ad- 

 vances ; the same may be said of reptiles ; and of 

 the different species of mice which constitute its 

 staple support, some retire on the approach of 

 winter to their subterranean burrows under the 

 roots of trees, or occupy the deserted cellars of the 

 mole ; others, which had taken to the meadows 

 in the early spring, or haunted their favourite 

 corn-field during the summer, and afterwards 

 perseveringly gleaned the stubble as long as a 

 grain of wheat or barley was to be found, now 

 take up their winter quarters in the comfortable 

 rick close by, beyond the precincts of which they 

 seldom venture during the inclement season of 

 the year. Here, then, the supplies are cut off with 



* For further confirmation of the insectivorous habits 

 of the kestrel, see " The Zoologist," vol. ix, p. 3112. See 

 also an interesting Paper by Rusticus, entitled The 

 Feathered Mousers, in " Chambers' Edinburgh Journal." 



