KESTREL 



WINDHOVER STONEGALL STANNEL HAWK. 



PLATE XVII. 

 Falco tinnuncuhiS) LINNAEUS. 



SOME pairs of Kestrels seem to keep together throughout 

 the winter. About the end of March is the period of 

 nidification. The young are hatched the latter end of April ; 

 and are at first fed with insects, and with mice and young 

 rats as they advance towards maturity. 



I am indebted to the Rev. John William Bower, Rector 

 of Barmston, in the East Riding, for the first record that I 

 am aware of, of the breeding of the Kestrel in confinement. 

 The following is an extract from his letter dated Nov- 

 ember 30, 1849, relating the circumstance: "A pair of 

 Kestrels bred this summer in my aviary. The female was 

 reared from a nest about four years ago, and the year after 

 scratched a hole in the ground, and laid six or seven eggs, 

 but she had no mate that year. Last winter a male Kestrel 

 pursued a small bird so resolutely as to dash through a window 

 in one of the cottages here, and they brought the bird to 

 me. I put him into the aviary with the hen bird, and they 

 lived very happily together all the summer, and built a 



nest or scratched a hole in the ground, and she laid five 



3* 



