214 BRITISH BIRDS 



by day the task of keeping down a pest which those ' feathered cats,' 

 the owls, so efficiently pursue at night. 



The kestrel is easier to tame, and, when tame, more docile and 

 affectionate, than most hawks, and many accounts have appeared 

 in print of the bird and its ways in the domestic condition ; but, to 

 my mind, not one so interesting as the history of a pet kestrel 

 kept a few years since by some friends of mine. The bird was 

 young when it came into their hands, and was lovingly cared for, 

 and made free of a large house and park, and of the whole wide 

 country beyond. And it made good use of its liberty. As a rule, 

 every morning it would fly away and disappear from sight until the 

 evening, when, some time before sunset, it would return, dash in 

 at the open door, and perch on some elevated situation a cornice, 

 or bust, or on the top of a large picture -frame. Invariably at dinner- 

 time it flew to the dining-room, and would then settle on the 

 shoulder of its master or mistress, to be fed with small scraps of 

 meat. This pleasant state of things lasted for about three years, 

 during which time the bird always roosted in, or somewhere near, 

 the house, flew abroad by day, to return faithfully every evening to 

 his loving human friends to be caressed, and fed, and made much 

 of ; and it might have continued several years longer, down to the 

 present time, if the bird's temper had not suffered a mysterious 

 change. All at once, for no reason that anyone could guess, he 

 became subject to the most extraordinary outbreaks of ill-temper, 

 and in such a state he would, on his return from his daily wander- 

 ings abroad, violently attack some person in the room. Up till this 

 time he had preferred his master and mistress to any other member 

 of the household, and had shown an equal attachment to both ; 

 now he would single out one or other of these his best friends 

 for his most violent attacks ; and, very curiously, on the day when 

 he attacked his master he would display the usual affection towards 

 his mistress, but on the next day would reverse the process. 

 And his hostility was not to be despised : rising up into the air to a 

 good height, he would dash down with great force on to the 

 obnoxious person's head, often inflicting a lacerating blow with his 

 claws. More than once, the lady told me, after one of these cutting, 

 ungrateful blows on her forehead her face was bathed in blood. 



It is pleasant to be able to relate that no feeling of resentment 

 or alarm was excited by this behaviour on the part of the bird ; 

 that he was never deprived of his sweet liberty or treated with less 

 gentleness than before. It was hoped and believed that he would 



