44 Baby Birds at Home 



the windows of a railway train as you glide 

 through the country, for although it is a 

 rather shy bird, it is bold enough to sit quite 

 still on a telegraph wire, whilst an express 

 rattles past it at full speed. 



The Windhover does not make a nest. 

 She sometimes uses the old home of a 

 magpie or carrion crow, and at others lays 

 her eggs in a hole in a tree, old ruin, or 

 on a ledge, in an overhanging cliff. 



From four to seven eggs are laid. These 

 are of a creamy- white colour, thickly blotched 

 and clouded with reddish brown. 



Baby Kestrels are covered with a plenti- 

 ful supply of down, and fed by both parent 

 birds. The writer watched a family of these 

 chicks on one occasion for the whole of a 

 summer's day, and the food brought to the 

 eyrie consisted entirely of voles and beetles. 



Upon fledging, young Windhovers scatter 

 and sit about amongst the trees in different 

 parts of a wood. If you remain quite still 

 for half an hour or so, and are well hidden, 

 you will hear them calling "kek, kek, kek," 

 from different quarters. They are hungry 

 and are calling out in order that one or 

 other of their parents may bring them food. 



