io SKETCHES OF BIRD LIFE. 



from the Latin coterellus. From this circumstance 

 it is probable that our modern Kestrel derived 

 his name. We find the word variously spelled 

 by different authors. Shakespeare has coystril 

 (" Twelfth Night," act i. sc. 3), and coistrel 

 (" Pericles," act iv. sc. 6). Blome, in his Gentle- 

 mans Recreation, 1686, writes it castrell ; while as 

 early as 1 6 1 4 we find it as kesterel. 1 



What a change has taken place since the last- 

 mentioned date with regard to hawks in England ! 

 Formerly the Kestrel was as much protected by law 

 as the Pheasant is nowadays. In Domesday Book 

 a hawk's " eyrie," or nest (aira accipitris), is returned 

 amongst the most valuable articles of property. In 

 the " Carta de Foresta," which King John was 

 compelled to sign, privilege was given to every free 

 man to keep eyries of hawks, falcons, and herons, in 

 his woods. Edward III., who was wonderfully fond 

 of hawking, passed some very stringent laws for the 

 preservation of hawks. One of these statutes, 

 passed in the thirty -seventh year of his reign, 

 made it a felony to steal a hawk, and not only had 

 the offender to pay the value of the bird by way 



1 A Jewel for Gentrie. London, 1614. 



