48 RAPTORES. FALCO. KESTREL. 



peculiar gracefulness of its flight, and the manner in which it 

 frequently remains suspended in the air, fixed, as it were, to 

 one spot, by a quivering play of the wings, scarcely percep- 

 tible. It is one of our commonest indigenous species, and is 

 widely spread through the kingdom. Upon the approach of 

 spring (or the period of incubation), it resorts to rocks and 

 high cliffs. 



Nest, &c. The nest consists of a few sticks loosely put together, and 

 sometimes lined with a little hay or wool ; and is placed in 

 some crevice, or on a projecting shelf. I have known it, un- 

 der the failure of more favourable situations, to breed in the 

 deserted nest of a magpie or crow. 



The eggs are from four to six in number, of a reddish- 

 brown colour, with darker blotches and variegations. It 



Food. preys upon the different species of mice, which it hunts for 

 from the elevated station at which it usually soars, and upon 

 which it pounces with the rapidity of an arrow. The cast- 

 ings of a nest of young Kestrels that I frequently inspected, 

 consisted entirely of the fur and bones of mice; and MONTAGU 

 remarks, that he never found the feathers or remains of birds 

 in the stomach of this hawk. He therefore concluded, that 

 it is only when it finds a difficulty in procuring its favourite 

 food that it attacks and preys on the feathered tribes. That 

 it will do so, under some circumstances, is evident, since bird- 

 catchers have discovered the Kestrel in the very act of poun- 

 cing their bird-calls ; and I have myself caught it in a trap 

 baited with a bird. 



In summer, the cockchafer supplies to this species an ob- 

 ject of pursuit and food, and the following curious account 

 given from an eye-witness of the fact. " I had," says he, 

 " the pleasure, this summer, of seeing the Kestrel engaged in 

 an occupation entirely new to me, hawking after cockchafers 

 late in the evening. I watched him through a glass, and 

 saw him dart through a swarm of the insects, seize one in 

 each claw, and eat them whilst flying. He returned to the 



