TH]£ KESTREL 163 



THE KESTREL 



FALCO TINNUNCULUS 



Wings shorter than the tail ; upper plumage, neck and breast, dark-lead 

 grey ; sides, under tail-coverts and thighs, light-yellowish red, with longi- 

 tudinal narrow dark streaks ; beak blue, lighter towards the base ; cere 

 and feet yellow ; irides brown ; claws black. Female — upper plumage 

 and tail light red, with transverse spots and bars of dark brown ; lower, 

 paler than in the male. Length fifteen inches ; breadth thirty inches. 

 Eggs reddish white, blotched and mottled with dark red-brown. 



The Kestrel being the most abundant and by far the most conspicu- 

 ous in its habits of all the British birds of prey, is probably, in most 

 instances, the bird ^vhich has been observed whenever the appear- 

 ance of ' a Hawk ' has been mentioned. Though rapid in flight 

 whenever it chooses to put forth its full powers, it is more remark- 

 able for the habit which has acquired for it the name of ' Wind- 

 hover ' ; and there can scarcely be any one, however unobservant, 

 who makes even but an occasional expedition into the country, but 

 has stopped and gazed with delight on its skilful evolutions. Sus- 

 pended aloft, with its head turned towards the wind, but neither 

 advancing against the breeze, nor moved by it from its position, it 

 agitates its wings as regularly and evenly as if they were turned on 

 a pivot by machinery. Presently, impelled as it were by a spirit 

 of restlessness, it suddenly darts forwards, perhaps ascending or 

 descending a few feet, and making a slight turn either to the right or 

 the left. Then it skims on with extended, motionless pinions, and 

 once more anchors itself to the air. But on what object is it intent 

 all this while ? for that some design is present here is indubitable. 

 Not surely on the capture of birds, for at that slight elevation its 

 keen eye would detect the movement of a bird at a mere glance ; 

 nor has it the dashing flight one would expect to see in a hunter after 

 game furnished with the same organs of motion as itself. But, 

 if intent on the capture of small animals which creep out of lioles 

 in the earth and hunt for their food among the grass, surely no 

 method can be conceived of exploring the field so quickly and so 

 completely. The Kestrel, then, though stigmatized by game 

 keepers with an evil name, does not merit the reproaches heaped on 

 it ; while to the farmer it is an invaluable ally, destroying countless 

 beetles, the grubs of which would gnaw away the roots of his crops ; 

 caterpillars, which would devour the foliage ; and, above all, mice, 

 which would fatten on the grain. For such food its appetite is enor- 

 mous, and its stomach capacious, an instance being recorded of a 

 specimen having been shot, the craw of which contained no less 

 than seventy-nine caterpillars, twenty-four beetles, a full-grown 

 field mouse, and a leech. To this \'aried bill of fare it adds, as occasion 

 offers, glow-worms, lizards, frogs, grasshoppers, and earth-worms. 

 In the winter, indeed, when these animals have withdrawn to their 

 retreats, it is compelled by hunger to provide itself with what my 



