80 THE KESTIIEL. 



Tlie common Kestrel is one of the most familiar of the British Hawks, being seen 

 in ahnost every part of the coimtiy where a mouse, a lizard, or a beetle may be found. 



It may be easily distinguished while on the wing from any other hawk, by the peculiar 

 manner in which it remains poised in air in a single spot, its head invariably pointing 

 t(_)wai'ds the wind, its tail spread, and its wings widely extended, almost as if it were a toy 

 kite raised in tlie air by artificial means, and preserved in the same spot by the trammels 

 of a string. While hanging thus strangely suspended in the air, its head is bent down- 

 wards, audits keen eyes glance restlessly in every direction, watching every blade of grass 

 beneath its ken, and shooting down with unerring certainty of aim upon any unhapi)y 

 field-mouse that may be foolish enough to poke his red face out of his hole while the 

 Kestrel is on the watch. The marvellous powers of the Kestrel's eye may be easily 

 i agined by any one who has any experience of the field-mouse and the extreme difficulty 

 of seeing tlie little creatui-e while it is creeping among the grass straws. Its ruddy 

 coat blends so well with the mould, and the grass blades bend so slightly under tlie 

 pressure of its soft fur, that an unpractised eye would fail to detect the mouse even if its 

 precise locality were pointed out. 



The number of field-mice consumed by this hawk is very great, for it is hardly 

 possible to open the stomach of a Kestrel without finding the remains of one or more of 

 tJK^se destructive little animals. On account of its mouse-eating propensities, the Kestrel 

 is a most useful bird to the fanner, who in his ignorance confounds all hawks together, and 

 slioots the Kestrel because the kite steals his chickens. 



Not that the Kestrel is wholly guiltless of chicken-stealing, or even of the greater crime 

 of poaching on the preserves. Like all animals, it occasionally changes its diet, and 

 pounces upon a chicken, a young pheasant, or a partridge. One of these birds has actually 

 l)een shot with a young pheasant hanging in its claws, and the legs of young game have 

 been found strewed beneath a nest where a Kestrel had reared her yomig. Young rabbits 

 and hares have sometimes fallen victims to the hunger of the Kestrel, which is, however, 

 unable to carry them away except during their earliest stages of independent existence. 

 Eeptiles of different kinds, such as frogs, small moles, and newts, are also a favourite prey 

 of this bird, which has often been known to snatch fish out of the water by a dexterous 

 sweep of its ready claw. When the Kestrel lives among the rocks upon the sea-coast, it 

 haunts the shore at low water in search of food, and makes many a meal on little cralis, 

 shrimps, small fish that have been left in the rock-pools of the receding tide, and many 

 other marine creatures. 



In the use of its claws the Kestrel is remarkably quick and ready, and being also a 

 swift-winged bird, it is in the habit of chasing cock-chalfers and other large beetles on tlie 

 wing, and catching them neatly with its claws as it shoots past their course. Without 

 pausing in its flight, the bird transfers the insect from the foot to the mouth, and eats it 

 without taking the trouble to alight. With such eagerness does it pursue this kind of 

 prey, which we may suppose to be taken as a dessert after a more substantial meal ujion 

 mouse-flesh, that it continues its cliase far into the evening, and may be seen in hot pursuit 

 of the high-flying beetles long after dusk. Caterpillars and other larvae are also eaten by 

 the Kestrel, which does not disdain to alight on the ground, and draw the earthworms out 

 of their holes. 



Sometimes, but rarely, it attacks the smaller birds, choosing especially to pounce upon 

 tlicm as tliey are gathered together in little flocks, and are so confounded at the sudden 

 appearance of their- enemy, that they fall easy victims to the destroyer. On this account, 

 the Kestrel is often seen in the winter months hovering near the farmyards, in hopes of 

 making a successful dash among a phimp of sparrows as they congregate over some fresh 

 straw, or settle among the fowls for the purpose of picking up the grain which was 

 intended for the poultry. Mice, however, are always its favourite diet, and as tlie 

 multiplication of these little quadrupedal pests is much increased by the abundant food 

 wliich they find in cultivated grounds, and stacks and barns, the Kestrel has learnt to 

 attach liiniself to human residences, instead of becoming self-banished, as is the case with 

 almost every other hawk. There is hardly a village -where the Kestrel may not be seen 

 hovering with outspread wings, and surveying the fields below. 



