THE WINDHOVER. 269 



in order to secure a commodious retreat wherein to perform their 

 approaching incubation. Allowing, on an average, four young ones 

 to the nest, there must have been bred here ninety- six windhover 

 hawks last summer : add the parent birds, and we shall have, in all, 

 one hundred and fourty-four. Scarcely five of these birds were seen 

 here from Michaelmas to the latter end of January. The periodical 

 disappearance of the windhover from its breeding-place might give 

 rise to much ornithological inquiry ; but I suspect that, when every 

 circumstance shall have been duly weighed, we shall still be in the 

 dark with regard to the true cause of its departure. The want of 

 food cannot be supposed to force it away ; for food the most con- 

 genial to its appetite is found here in great abundance at the very 

 time when it deserts us. Neither can supposed inclemency of 

 weather be alleged in support of its migration, as the temperature of 

 England is remarkably mild long after the sun has descended into 

 the southern hemisphere.* 



In a pocket-book of Waterton's were the following observations 

 on the kestrel : " I strongly suspect that this hawk leaves us at the 

 end of September or early in October." 



* This year of 1826, there were five nests of the windhover in my park. They 

 all hatched and reared their young. I saw numbers of them every day till the 

 last week in September. They then disappeared, nor have I seen one in October 

 or up to the loth of November, at the time I am now writing this. 



WINDHOVER HAWK. Saw them here February 8, 1831, being the first day of 

 their appearance since October 1830. 



July 6, 1850. Examined a windhover's nest, with a brood of half-fledged young 

 ones in it. The nest was a last year's ringdove's ; but I could not find a single 

 feather in the nest, proof sufficient that windhovers do not feed their young on 

 birds. 



It is to be observed that Waterton does not assert that the kestrel never eats a 

 small bird, for in 1844 he writes, " Mr Bury has quite satisfied me that the wind- 

 hover will now and then make a meal on the smaller birds ; and this information 

 on his part is very acceptable to me, as I have no opportunity of observing the 

 windhover during the winter months, for it leaves this immediate neighbourhood in 

 October, and seldom returns before the first week in February." [ED.] 



