KESTREL. 99 
this I received five eggs from another Kestrel’s nest, which 
were exactly like those 1 had previously, after they were washed.’ 
The following curious circumstance is thus pleasingly related 
by the Rev. W. Turner, of Uppingham, in the ‘Zoologist,’ pages 
2296-7:—‘In the summer of 1847 two young Kestrels were 
reared from the nest, and proved to be male and female: they 
were kept in a commodious domicile built for them in an open 
yard, where they lived a life of luxury and ease. This sum- 
mer a young one of the same species was brought and put 
into the same apartment; and, strange to say, the female 
Kestrel, sensible (as we suppose) of the helpless condition of 
the new-comer, immediately took it under her protection. As 
it was too infantine to perch, she kept it in one corner of the 
cage, and for several days seldom quitted its side; she tore in 
pieces the food given to her, and assiduously fed her young 
charge, exhibiting as much anxiety and alarm for its safety 
as its real parent could have done. But what struck me as 
very remarkable, she would not allow the male bird, with whom 
she lived on the happiest terms, to come near the young one. 
As the little stranger increased in strength and intelligence, 
her attentions and alarm appeared gradually to subside, but 
she never abandoned her charge, and its sleek and glossy 
appearance afforded ample proof that it had been well cared 
for. The three are now as happy as confined birds can be. 
The late Frederick Holme, Esq., of Corpus Christi College, 
Oxtord, records that a nest of this species was observed to 
have been begun near that city; a trap was set, and five 
male birds were caught on successive days, without the oc- 
currence of a single female; the last of them ‘being a young 
bird of the year im complete female plumage.’ Again, at 
page 2765, the Rev. Henry R. Crewe, of Breadsall Rectory, 
Derbyshire, relates the following pleasmg anecdote:—‘About 
four years ago, my children procured a young Kestrel, which, 
when able to fly, I persuaded them to give it its liberty: 
it never left the place, but became attached to them. In 
the spring of the following year we missed him for nearly a 
week, and thought he had been shot; but one morning I 
observed him soaring about with another of his species, which 
proved to be a female. They paired, and laid several eggs 
in an old dove-cote, about a hundred yards from the Rectory; 
but being disturbed that season, as I thought, by some White 
Owls, the eggs were never hatched. The next spring he 
again brought a mate: they again built, and reared a nest 
