26 EGYPTIAN BIRDS 



down the land, and, as already stated, the young are 

 often to be heard when they cannot be seen, calling 

 with their incessant squeaky voice for their devoted 

 parents. The parents are to be seen searching for 

 food, hovering over the fields in the same way 

 that they do at home, for this bird is the familiar 

 Windhover (see Plate II.). The quantity of mice 

 that it consumes is enormous, and of lizards, 

 beetles, and particularly locusts, it also takes toll. 

 So that though it does not do the useful work 

 that the Kites are doing day by day, it still clears 

 the land of what would otherwise be grave 

 scourges. 



The Kestrel is one of the birds of which large 

 quantities of mummies have been found, and it 

 was clearly treated with quite sacred rites, lending 

 colour to the views of some that this is the 

 original of the Hawk so frequently pictured and 

 sculptured. This question is one, however, that as 

 doctors disagree upon, it is not for a layman to 

 venture judgment ; but several of the best pre- 

 served specimens of wall-paintings at Deir-el- 

 Bahari in their drawing suggest much more the 

 shape of a long-legged Sparrow Hawk than the 

 compact Kestrel. The colouring of these pictures 

 is so different, sometimes one part of a bird will be 



