I40 BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND 



takes up at nightfall, for it lives almost entirely upon 

 mice, and, these failing, upon large insects, especially the 

 destructive cockchafer. It so very rarely molests a bird that, 

 hawk though it is, you never see the smaller feathered-folk 

 in alarm at its approach. "He is no enemy of theirs, and 

 mingles freely with them, almost unheeded." Observe what 

 consternation the sparrow-hawk brings to the little songsters 

 when he is abroad ; but how different when the kestrel 

 passes overhead ! The chaffinch, instead of uttering cries of 

 alarm, continues his merry notes ; and the larks and pipits 

 pay no attention to the little bird of prey. When it hovers 

 over the farmyard, or hunts round the ricks, no anxious hen 

 clucks to her scattered family any note of warning or recall, 

 the sparrows continue at their meal, and the swallows, 

 unconcerned and trustful, wheel twittering in the air. Its 

 nest is sometimes found in holes in buildino-s where doves 

 and starlings are its companions. But for mice of all kinds 

 the kestrel has only unrelenting and ceaseless hostility ; and 

 it has been calculated that a single pair will account in a 

 season for the astonishing number of ten thousand. 



Its favourite method of hunting makes the kestrel a familiar 

 bird by sight, and gives it its name of " windhover," for, 



" as if let down from the heaven there 

 By viewless silken thread," 



it hangs suspended in the air over a given spot, until it either 



