NESTING-SERIES OF BRITISH BIRDS. 195 
No.156. KESTREL. (Cerchneis tinnunculus.) 
This useful friend of the agriculturist is the commonest bird of prey 
in the British Islands, where it is often known as the Wind-hover, 
from its habit of hovering or hanging almost motionless in the air, 
against the wind, over one spot, while it searches the ground beneath 
for prey. Its food consists chiefly of rodents, large beetles, and other 
insects, but occasionally small or young birds are taken. The eggs, 
which are reddish-brown and from four to six in number, are laid, as a 
rule, in the old nest of a Crow or Magpie, ete., but cavities in hollow 
trees, cliffs, and towers are also utilized. 
Sutherlandshire, May. 
Presented by Colonel L. H. Irby & Captain S. G. Reid. 
No. 157. COMMON BUZZARD. (Buteo vulgaris.) 
Though still fairly numerous in many of the wilder parts of Scotland, 
in the north-west of England and in Wales, this species is annually 
decreasing in numbers, owing to the constant persecution to which it is 
subjected. Its food consists chiefly of young rabbits and hares and 
other small mammals, but reptiles, grasshoppers and other insects, as 
well as small birds, are also eaten. The large nest of sticks and dead 
heather is either built in a tree or placed on the ledge of a cliff, in the 
neighbourhood of rabbit-burrows. Three or four greyish-white eggs, 
blotched with reddish-brown and lilac, are usually laid in April; both 
birds take part in the duties of incubation. 
The nest exhibited is a second one, the first having been destroyed. 
Ross-shire, June. 
Presented by Captain 8. G. Reid § W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, Esq. 
No. 158. GOLDEN EAGLE. (Aquila chrysaétus.) 
Owing to the protection afforded by the proprietors of deer-forests, 
the numbers of this grand bird of prey have greatly increased during 
recent years. Its breeding-places are now confined to the highlands of 
Scotland, the Hebrides, and the north and west of Ireland, but during 
exceptionally cold seasons it sometimes visits the south of Scotland 
and, very rarely, England. It feeds chiefly on mountain-hares, grouse, 
and ptarmigan, occasionally taking lambs, fawns, and young red-deer ; 
and a nest, with one nearly full-fledged young eagle, was found to 
