2 THE BIRDS OF BERKS AND BUCKS. 



overhead. For two successive years a pair of Kestrels 

 bred in some tall fir-trees at Formosa, and birds of 

 this species have been frequently observed in the 

 "■rounds of Mr. Burrows at Cookham. Some time 

 since, a male Kestrel was shot in the act of grasping 

 a slowworm, which it held so tightly, that when it 

 arrived at Cookham from Reading its feet still re- 

 tained their hold, notwithstanding that the victim 

 was alive ! 



In his account of ' The Birds of Cookham and the 

 Neighbourhood,' Mr. Sharpe states that this hawk 

 feeds chiefly on small birds : I think mice constitute 

 its principal food, although it has occasionally been 

 seen to carry off live sparrows, redpoles, siskins, and 

 gold-finches ; and as a proof of its voracity, a London 

 bird-fancier once exhibited a young Kestrel which 

 had been killed and partly devoured by others of 

 its own species. 



' I remember well,' says Mr. Sharpe, 'having 

 crept close up to a flock of sparrows, I was about 

 to fire from behind the hedge, when I saw a brown 

 thing jumping about on the ground in the midst of 

 them. I thought at first it was a stoat, but I soon 

 saw it was a Kestrel, and I stood watching it. What 

 surprised me most was, that the sparrows did not 

 fly, but were dodging about like mice on all sides of 

 the hawk, apparently aware that if once on the wing, 

 the hawk would soon overtake them, whereas on the 

 ground their smaller size and superior agility enabled 



