THE KESTREL. I3 



nailed against a barn, or miserably stuffed by a 

 village barber, we cannot but regret the change 

 which has taken place and the want of wisdom 

 which has caused it. 



There are few prettier sights in nature than the 

 manoeuvres of a Kestrel on the wing. We never 

 see its wonderful, almost motionless hovering 

 without thinking of the Ettrick Shepherd, who 

 sang of the Merlin : 



" And the Merlin hung in the middle air, 



With its little wings outspread, 

 As if let down from the heavens there 

 By a viewless silken thread." 



From this peculiarity in its flight, as well as 

 from its brown colour and more pointed wings, 

 the Kestrel may be distinguished on the wing from 

 the rounder-winged gray and Sparrow-hawk. We 

 have often been surprised at the ignorance displayed 

 by keepers on the subject of hawks. Many of them 

 not only do not know a Kestrel from a Sparrow- 

 hawk, but they actually admit that, although they 

 have shot hundreds, they have never proved by 

 dissection that their surmises with regard to its food 

 were well founded. 



