2o8 Northern Observations of Inland Birds 



morning in Northamptonshire when our curiosity was 

 roused by a loud and pitiful squealing in a hedge near. 

 We approached quietly, and what was our surprise when 

 a kestrel shot from one side of the hedge and a large hare 

 from the other. Evidently the bird of prey had attacked 

 the hare in the open and subsequently followed it into 

 the hedge, for a brown hare seldom takes to thick cover 

 of this kind unless hard pressed. 



Fishing from a boat at Teaton Reservoir, Northampton- 

 shire, a friend and I were one day much interested in 

 watching two young kestrels wildly and impartially 

 hunting the swifts that flew in hundreds just above the 

 surface of the water. It was a thundery day, and the 

 air was full of the shrieking of swifts, but otherwise the 

 birds seemed to be little disturbed by the presence of the 

 two foolish young hawks, which, all the same, once or 

 twice came very near to catching their intended quarry. 



At my home in the same county we had, surrounding 

 the tennis lawn, a long screen of herring netting, into 

 which, on summer nights, the cockchafers used to fly, 

 the collision with the netting occasioning them so much 

 surprise that they used often to cling to the meshes for 

 some minutes, pondering the situation. I have, on 

 certain evenings, seen the net quite heavily hung with 

 cockchafers, while here and there were knots in the cord, 

 which very closely resembled a clinging insect. 



One evening a kestrel flew into the netting and became 

 securely entangled. Unquestionably he was hunting the 

 cockchafers, which that night were about in thousands. 

 We found the poor bird hanging head downwards, and 

 at the point at which its talons were entangled, curious 

 to relate, was one of the knots above alluded to ! It 

 flew off immediately on being liberated. 



A tame kestrel which I had as a pet when a boy, had a 

 most interesting career. It had, while young, free run 



