KESTREL 33 



eggs, sat steadily, and brought off and reared two fine 

 young ones." 



The eggs of the Kestrel are usually placed on the ground, 

 in rocky cliffs on the sea-coast, chalk-pits, or elsewhere. They 

 are also, when it suits the purpose of the bird, laid in the 

 holes of trees, or of banks, as also on ancient ruins, the towers 

 of Churches, even in towns and cities, both in the country 

 and in London itself; and also in dovecotes. Sometimes 

 the deserted nest of a Magpie, Crow, Jackdaw, or wood- 

 pigeon is made use of. When placed on rocks, hardly 

 any nest is compiled a hollow in the bare rock or earth 

 serving the purpose. Mr. William Thompson, of Belfast, 

 mentions a curious fact of a single female Kestrel having 

 laid and sat on four eggs of the natural colour, in the 

 month of April, 1848, after having been four years in 

 confinement. 



The eggs, which are often laid in April, are four or 

 five in number, sometimes as many as six six young birds 

 having been found in one nest are reddish brown, or 

 yellowish brown, more or less speckled or marbled over 

 with darker and lighter specks or blots of the same, and 

 some are even dingy white. Mr. Yarrell says that the fifth 

 egg has been known to weigh several grains less than either 

 of those previously deposited, and it has also less colouring 

 matter spread over the shell than the others ; both effects 

 probably occasioned by the temporary constitutional exhaus- 

 tion the bird has sustained. In the Zoologist, page 2596, 

 Mr. J. B. Ellman, of Rye, in Sussex, writes: "This year 

 I received some eggs of the Kestrel which were rather 

 dirty; so after blowing them, I washed them in cold water, 

 and much to my surprise the whole colour came off, leaving 

 the eggs of a dirty yellow, speckled with drab. Not 



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