Kestrel i97 



often contract the bad habit of infesting the coops and carrying off 

 the young birds. This evil may easily be stopped ; but it should 

 not lead to the relentless persecution of the species, especially when 

 it is remembered that the Kestrel is in the first place attracted to 

 the spot by the presence of the mice which come to eat the Pheasant's 

 food." This is a perfectly wise and fair statement of the case. 

 The rather cryptic sentence, " this e\il may easily be stopped," 

 being interpreted, means that the offending birds can easih' be killed, 

 and should be killed, unless game-rearing is given up. As to the ease 

 or difficulty with which the killing is carried out, this varies greath\ 

 Some birds are quite careless in their raids, and soon fall victims to 

 the keeper. Others, though bold enough, are slim and full of cunning. 

 They carry off birds day after day, alwavs making their approach 

 from some fresh point, and alwa}-s avoiding the hidden gun. Such 

 birds sometimes go through the whole season taking a dailv toll of 

 chicks, and escape scot-free in the end. 



I think that where food is plentiful and easily procured, most 

 animals are eminently wasteful and careless. Birds certainly are, 

 and it is only scarcity and the actual pinch of hunger that makes 

 them exercise any sort of economv in their house-keeping. A 

 Mistle Thrush in early October will pluck the berries off a rowan 

 tree, letting ten fall to the ground for every one he eats. I watched 

 a Peregrine Falcon on Grassholme Island off the Welsh Coast, knock 

 four Puffins down one after the other without bothering to pick up 

 one. A Golden Eagle on a sheep-farm, not only carries off lambs, 

 but takes at least three times as many as the family reciuire. And 

 so it is with the Kestrel ; once he has begun on the rearing-field, 

 his depredations never stop, until the keeper's gun finishes his career 

 abruptly, or the game-chicks become too big for easy lifting. While 

 they are small, he takes far more than he needs for his family 

 or himself, and the excess is allowed to rot. 



I made the following note of a Kestrel's nest with five young 

 in July, 1915. 



I found under the tree, where the parents were feeding the 

 young, four Starlings, one Green-Finch, one Lark and two young 

 Partridges." The young birds were in three cases out of the four 

 full of Partridge-chick remains. The overflow at the foot of the 

 tree was surplus supply and was entirely wasted. 



Proceeding now to summarize the crop and stomach contents 

 of the Kestrels collected, there are twenty females and twenty-nine 

 males, shot between April ist and September ist. In addition, 

 there are five more or less complete families (6, 5, 5, 5, 5, ) or 

 seventy-five birds in all. Of the forty-nine adult skins, in fourteen 

 there were found remains of passerine birds, including Meadow-Pipit, 

 Thrush, Sky-lark, Sparrow, and three unidentified. 



In twentv-oue, rodents, including rats, mice, long- and short- 

 tailed field-mice. 



