Kestrel i99 



Of the five families in m\- collection, the stomach-contents 

 were as follows : 



(i) July 5th, 1894 ; adult male and five very small nestlings. 

 All full of Pheasant-chick remains, two freshly-killed chicks on 

 the edge of nest. The stomach of the female adult was empty at 

 the time, though no doubt she was on the same diet. 



(2) June 9th, 1915 ; adult female and four nestlings. All 

 contained mouse-fur and nothing else. 



(3) July T and 2, 1894. Five fuUy-fiedged young birds, all 

 full of Partridge chicks. 



(4) July 7th, 1913 ; adult male and four fully-fledged young ; 

 remains of passerine birds and mice. 



(5) J^lv 9th and nth, 1915 ; adult male and four nestlings; 

 long-tailed field-mouse and four fully-fledged young birds. Three 

 contained remains of Partridge chicks. 



So that, of ' the five families, two were entirely innocent 

 of poaching, and the other three were subsisting on game-birds and 

 little else, victimizing the keeper every hour of the clay. 



When the 3'oung of the Kestrel, and I think the same is true of 

 many other Raptors, are fully fledged and able to fly for a short 

 distance, the parents commonly move them from the nest. They select 

 some suitable tree in the neighbourhood, which affords a sufficient 

 leafy cover, to which the family is taken, and there complete their 

 education in fl\ing and learning to secure their own prey. Unless 

 they are disturbed, the >'oung Hawks will remain about this tree, 

 for perhaps another fortnight. All this time the parents are 

 assiduous in bringing in food throughout the dav : and, as one may 

 see by examining the ground under the tree, they commonly bring 

 in far more than the voung require, and much is wasted and left to 

 rot. 



Finally, when the young are fully able to take care of themselves, 

 the family party is broken up and the young are driven out into the 

 world to seek their own living. 



The Kestrel is eminentl}- a migratory bird, and almost all the 

 Kestrels that breed in the country leave for the South in early 

 autumn, returning again towards the middle of March. At the same 

 time, October brings an influx of foreign Kestrels, which, in their 

 turn, winter with us, unless the weather be exceptionally severe, 

 and leave our shores in the earh' spring. Kestrels are fairly common 

 in this country in every month of the 3'ear, but are far more numerous 

 in summer (April ist to October ist) than in the winter months 

 (October to end of March). 



[T.-VBLE I. 



