THE KESTREL 75 



At times the Windhover pursues large game, and a 

 stalker of my acquaintance told me that he once noted 

 it eating a well-grown young Partridge. It has also been 

 known to devour a Grey Crow, though it would seem 

 hardly likely that it had captured it. A Kestrel has 

 been knoAvn, too, to hawk cockchafers in the dusk of an 

 evening. 



After the young Kestrels have left the nest, they are 

 led by the parent birds across the moors, and should 

 the family be disturbed, the parents show great anxiety 

 for the welfare of their young, though these may be strong 

 on the wing and able to take care of themselves. Indeed 

 it is often necessary that the young should be well matured 

 at the time they leave the nest, for the nesting rock not 

 unfrequently overlooks a deep pool of some hill burn. 

 Considering that it is a member of the dreaded and hated 

 hawk family, the Kestrel seems to excite curiously little 

 hostility from other birds, certainly not as much, I should 

 say, as the Grey Crow ; but I once saw a Windhover have 

 an extremely bad time of it from a colony of Sea Swallows. 



To a certain extent only is the Kestrel a resident in 

 Scotland, and in the north of that country it is merely a 

 summer visitor. On the approach of winter, many of those 

 birds which have nested with us cross the Mediterranean, 

 on the farther side of which their food is said to consist 

 mainly of locusts. 



The Kestrel cannot be said to be a bird with an exten- 

 sive northern distribution. It is absent from the Faroes, 

 and from Iceland, but is found in Norway, though it is 

 doubtful whether it reaches the North Cape. 



It is met with in Siberia, but not in the most northerly 

 districts of that country. Farther afield it is found in 

 China, Persia, India. In the mountains of the Caucasus 

 it is common and nests in Palestine. Great numbers 

 pass the winter months in Africa. 



