KESTRELD. 95 
these birds are more numerous in the winter than in the 
summer, and he adds that probably ‘like the Merlin, this 
species merely migrates from the interior to the coast.’ And 
‘in the north of Ireland, generally,’ says Mr. Thompson, ‘Kes- 
trels seem to be quite as numerous in winter as in summer, 
in their usual haunts.’ 
The Kestrel begins to feed at a very early hour of the 
morning. It has been known to do so even almost before 
it was light. Several others of this family, as I have before 
had occasion to observe, continue the pursuit of their prey 
until a correspondingly late hour in the evening. 
Other species of Hawk may be seen hovering in a fixed 
position in the air, for a brief space, the Common Buzzard 
for instance, but most certainly the action, as performed by 
the Kestrel, is both peculiar to and characteristic of itself 
alone, in this kingdom at least. No one who has lived in 
the country can have failed to have often seen it suspended 
in the air, fixed, as it were, to one spot, supported by its 
out-spread tail, and by a quivering play of the wings, more 
or less perceptible. 
It has been asserted that the Kestrel never hovers at a 
greater height from the ground than forty feet, but this is 
altogether a mistake. The very last specimen that I have 
seen thus poised, which was about a fortnight since, in Wor- 
cestershire, seemed to me as near as I could calculate its 
altitude, to be at an elevation of a hundred yards from the 
ground. 4 mean, of course, at its first balancing itself, for 
down, as the species is so often seen to do, it presently 
stooped, and then halted again, like Mahomet’s coffin, 
between sky and earth, then downwards again it settled, and 
then yet once again, and then glided off—the prey it had 
aimed at having probably gone under cover of some sort: 
otherwise it would have dropped at last like a stone upon it, 
if an animal very probably fascinated, and borne it off im- 
mediately for its meal. It is a bird of considerable powers 
of flight. Tame Kestrels kept by Mr. John Atkinson, of 
Leeds, having had their wings cut to prevent their escape, 
exhibited, he says, great adroitness in climbing trees. 
The food of the Kestrel consists of the smaller animals, 
such as field mice, and the larger insects, such as grasshoppers, 
beetles, and caterpillars: occasionally it will seize and destroy 
a wounded partridge, but when seen hovering over the fields 
in the peculiar and elegant manner so well illustrated by my 
