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the slopes are more or less covered with verdure. In selecting 
such breeding places, the gulls, as might be expected, select the 
more inaccessible slopes; great mortality occurs among the young 
gulls, from their nests being placed on the steep inclines, for the 
young, tempted from their nests, lose their foothold on the slippery 
grass and slide and fall down on the beach below, where they are 
abandoned by the parent birds.”” The Peregrine Falcon soars aloft 
amid the inaccessible heights; Col. Fielding told me a pair had 
reared their young there in safety in 1887, and these young gulls 
must have contributed to their daily food. I should say some of 
the gulls make their nests on the fallen rock just above the ordinary 
high water line, and at low water these nests are invariably 
plundered of their eggs. Col. Fielding estimates that no less than 
400 Herring Gulls nest in the Cliffs between Dover and 
St. Margaret’s Bay. 
A visitor to the Cliff, immediately below the South Foreland 
Light House, will be gratified to find that a considerable colony of 
Guillemots make this their breeding station. It is a very bold 
perpendicular headland, and only accessible to experienced cragsmen 
with proper appliances. 
The Merlin, though met with occasionally, is only a Visitor in 
Kent ; it breeds in the more northern counties. This bold little bird 
was formerly a great favourite of the hawkers; I have had some of 
them given me by a friend who had used them for hawking larks ; 
he tried to persuade me to try them, and although I never got so 
far as to hawk with them, I tamed them, and one that I have had for 
a long time afforded me much amusement and insight into their 
habits ; they are generally met with in Kent during the winter 
months. 
The Kestrel is our common hawk, though not so frequently 
met with of late as it should be. There seems to bea very absurd 
prejudice against all kinds of hawks. The Kestrel is commonly 
called a Sparrow Hawk, although it cannot be mistaken for that 
bird by any one acquainted with its habits. As an instance of the 
usefulness of this bird, I may relate that my son was one day out 
partridge shooting, and saw hovering over a turnip field a kestrel, 
which he shot, when immediately a covey of partridges arose—he 
brought it home to me in proof of its destructive qualities ; I assured 
him it would not kill any bird so large as a partridge, and on 
opening it I found its crop filled with caterpillars, and I found 
the same caterpillars in abundance in the turnip field. These birds 
feed on mice, small birds, and insects, and are as useful as owls. 
The Common Sparrow Hawk has quite a different character 
from the kestrel, but it is getting scarce, although there are plenty 
of sparrows it might kill with advantage. Unlike the kestrel, which 
