THE KESTREL. 17 



not more than ten feet from the ground, and 

 contained six eggs, four of which were taken, and 

 the remaining two in due course hatched. Mr. J. 

 H. Gurney jun. saw two Kestrels' nests in Surrey 

 during the summer of 1881, both of which were in 

 holes of trees. One w r as about two feet down in an 

 elm, the other about a foot down in an ash. 



The eggs, usually five in number, vary from a light 

 brick-red or sandy colour to a dark chestnut. This 

 colour is distributed over the surface in small spots 

 or blotches, sometimes so thickly as to obscure the 

 originally white ground colour of the egg. We 

 have occasionally seen eggs of this species blotched 

 with chestnut at the larger end only, the remainder 

 being pure white, and resembling in this respect 

 eggs of the Sparrow-hawk. They had not, how- 

 ever, that bluish or greenish cast on the inside of 

 the shell which is always apparent on holding an 

 egg of the Sparrow-hawk up to the light. Kestrels 

 may frequently be observed in the breeding season 

 flying about cliffs facing the sea, on the ledges of 

 which they nest like Peregrines. 



