28 



SPRING 



digest, are often thickly strewn about such a spot, and indi- 

 cate the species of the hawk that uses it. The shining 

 wing-cases of beetles usually distinguish the dining-place of 

 the kestrel, for it lives largely on this kind of small game. 

 Sparrow-hawks, with their more secret woodland method of 

 hunting, have less formal table manners ; they pluck their 

 prey under any quiet hedge, and little heaps of feathers 

 mark where the blackbird or chaffinch or wood-pigeon has 

 made their meal. Feathers are seldom found at the kestrel's 

 feeding-place, either strewn loose or felled in the castings, for 

 the kestrel only occasionally feeds on small birds. It is only 

 exceptional for it to attack young pheasants on the rearing- 

 ground, though individual birds are occasionally guilty of 

 this form of poaching. Most of the kestrels seen near 

 pheasant-coops probably come in pursuit of the rats and 

 mice which are drawn by the young birds and by their 

 food. 



