150 Pictures of Bird Life 



eared Owl is the only species which may perhaps be 

 suspected of occasionally taking young Pheasants, but I 

 cannot help thinking that its opportunities in this direction 

 are ^'ery few and far between. 



The Kestrel, hanging on suspended wings o^er the 

 fields mouse-hunting, is not at all an uncommon sight, 

 and is one which I frequently enjoy. These birds make 

 no nest for themselves, but make use of an old A\'ood- 

 pigeon's, Crow's, or Squirrel's nest. One found two years 

 ago was on the top of an ash-tree, and tlie five eggs reposed 

 on a comfortable bed of broken-up castings of mouse fiu" 

 and bones, among which I detected only one bird's wing, 

 tliat of a hen Blackbird. And yet tliis bird is killed as 

 vermin by nine keepers out of ten. 



Another nest was found immediately outside tlie town, 

 in an old Crow's nest high up in an immense elm. It was 

 only found the day before the young left it. For four days 

 a friend and myself lay in Mait with cameras pointed at two 

 young chickens tethered witliin sight of the nest. On the 

 first day the hen Kestrel hovered immediately over tlie un- 

 conscious chickens ; but just as she appeared ready for the 

 fatal stoop, she detected me crouching behind a big tree and 

 sheered off. Though we tried difierent places for the bait 

 and changed oiu* hiding-places, it was all to no avail. One 

 whole day we spent on an overhanging brancli of a neigh- 

 bouring tree, well hidden, as we thought, by the surrounding 

 leaves, helped out }:)y cut-down branches. But though we 

 were unsuccessful in tliese attempts to photograpli. we were 



