KESTEEL. 



WINDHOVER. STONEGALL. STANNEL HAWK. 



PLATE XVII. 



Falco Tinnunculus, MONTAGU. SELBT. 



Accipiter alaudarius, BEISSON. 



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 animal food as they advance towards maturity. 



I am indebted to my obliging friend, the Eev. 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 November the 30th., 

 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 eggs, sat steadily, and brought 

 off and reared two fine young ones/ 



The nest, which is placed in rocky cliffs on the sea-coast, or else- 

 where, is also, when it suits the purpose of the bird, built on trees, 

 in fact quite as commonly as in the former situations; sometimes in 

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

 the towers of churches, even in towns and cities, both in the country 



VOL. I. F 



