KESTREL 101 



trifle, and shoots down every kestrel on his ground. A very enlighten- 

 ing fact that came under my notice was the effect of the great war of 

 1914-18 on the kestrel. In the second and third years of the war the 

 number of men employed in game preservation was very greatly 

 reduced; in fact all the able-bodied younger men were at the front. 

 The increase in the breeding stock of kestrels in the home counties 

 and the midlands was extraordinary. Where we had been accustomed 

 to find one or two pairs scattered over a wide area, they were, in the 

 third year of the war, present in dozens. Even the territorial system 

 seemed to break down. Instead of each pair having a wide range of 

 country to itself, I have seen two pairs breeding in hedgerow elms 

 within 20 yards of one another, while a third was only 200 yards 

 distant. This was in Berkshire; but after the war this species rapidly 

 reverted to its former status, though there is now less ground pre- 

 served for game than was the case in pre-war times, and in conse- 

 quence the kestrel finds a secure breeding place in the unpreserved 

 districts. 



Courtship. — The courtship of the falcons is simple in character and 

 consists chiefly in aerial evolutions on the part of the male and the 

 pursuit of the female. Andre Labitte (1932) describes it as observed 

 by him on several occasions about the beginning of April. On bright 

 sunny days, especially, the male may be seen pursuing the hen, with 

 rapidly repeated cries of ki-ki-ki-ki-ki. At times the two birds seem 

 to be playing together as they fly in the breeze, the male usually 

 flying above the female and circling round her; then, as she perches 

 on the branch of a tree, still bare of leaves, she seems to watch the 

 evolutions. These end in a series of stoops, in which he brushes his 

 companion with his wings. 



Julian Huxley (1923) also records a similar scene witnessed by him 

 in Berkshire: "The hen bird was sitting in a large bush. * * * 

 A strong wind was blowing, and the cock again and again beat his 

 way up against it, to turn when nearly at the house and bear down 

 upon the bush in an extremity of speed. Just when it seemed inevi- 

 table that he would knock his mate off her perch and dash himself and 

 her into the branches, he changed the angle of his wings to shoot 

 vertically up the face of the bush; then turned and repeated the play. 

 Sometimes he came so near to her that she would start back, flapping 

 her wings, as if really fearing a collision. The wind was so strong — 

 and blowing away from me — that I could not hear what cries may 

 have accompanied the display." 



Pairing sometimes takes place on a horizontal branch of a tree, or 

 even in an old nest, but Labitte (1932) noticed that it was not nec- 

 essarily that in which the eggs were subsequently laid. 



Nesting. — Strictly speaking, the kestrel makes no nest, and the site 

 chosen varies according to the district. Thus in the northern isles, 



