Their Eggs and Nests. 49 



nest ? Sometimes red all over, closely spotted with 

 deeper red ; sometimes blotched rather tlian spotted, 

 and with large blotches; sometimes with a lighter 

 ground-colour, but always tinged with red, though 

 otherwise not so unlike the Sparrow Hawk's as not to 

 remind one of that bird's eggs. I like to see, and I 

 like to hear the Kestrel, though it is no dainty song 

 he sings. I like to see him fly so stately and steadily 

 along, and then pause and hover — his wings this 

 moment moving rapidly, then as he sails off, seeming 

 to be as moveless as his body — and next he rounds 

 to so beautifully, and, after a moment's balancing, 

 drops to the ground with swift, but so evenly regu- 

 lated an impulse, and securing his mouse, sails off to 

 feed his expectant young ones. Mice seem to form a 

 favourite, if not staple, article of their food ; but they 

 are not exclusive in their diet. An occasional small 

 bird, hosts of coleoptera or beetle-kind, cock-chafers 

 in their season, grubs, and even worms, are known to 

 be readily eaten by them. As intimated above, the 

 species is everywhere familiar, and is alike too 

 beautiful and too useful to be so wantonly killed as 

 it too often is. — Fig. 6, plaic I. 



QO^'RK\YK—{Asiiir paluvibariiis). 

 We do not often see the Goshawk in any part of 

 the kingdom, and very rarely indeed, except in some 

 parts of Scotland and in Orkney. It, like the 

 Peregrine, was in much request for the sport of 

 Hawking : only, as its manner of flight was difl^erent 

 from that of the Falcon, it was used for the pursuit 

 of different species of game from the latter. Probably 



