58 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



Throughout the whole of the weald, which 

 comprehends about half the county of Sussex, 

 the kestrel or windhover is moderately dispersed 

 during the breeding-season. In this wooded dis- 

 trict it adopts the deserted nest of the carrion 

 crow or magpie, but although I have taken consi- 

 derable pains to ascertain, from constant personal 

 observation during several years, the extent of its 

 distribution here at this season, even in those 

 localities where it was obviously of more frequent 

 occurrence than in others, I could never find that 

 it was numerous as a species in any portion of 

 this region. For instance, on a well- wooded manor 

 of nearly two thousand acres, where game and 

 gamekeepers had been equally scarce for many 

 years, I could not discover more than four esta- 

 blishments of the windhover during an entire 

 spring and summer, although I explored every 

 crow's nest that I could find, and frightened 

 many a magpie out of its own lawful habitation. 

 Now admitting that an equal number had escaped 

 my detection which I think is scarcely possible 

 still this species must be considered as compa- 

 ratively sparingly distributed throughout this part 

 of the county during the spring and summer 

 months. At the same season I have repeatedly 

 examined other districts, and from my own obser- 

 vation, and the concurrent testimony of local ob- 



