NESTING-SERIES OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



No. 156. KESTREL. (Cerchneis tinnunculus.) 



This useful friend of the agriculturist is the commonest bird of prey 

 in the British Islands, where it is often known as the Wind-hover, 

 from its habit of hovering or hanging almost motionless in the air, 

 against the wind, over one spot, while it searches the ground beneath 

 for prey. Its food consists chiefly of rodents, large beetles and other 

 insects, but occasionally small or young birds are taken. The eggs, 

 which are reddish- brown and from four to six in number, are laid, as a 

 rule, in the old nest of a Crow or Magpie, etc., but cavities in hollow 

 trees, cliffs, and towers are also utilized. 



Sutherlandshire, May. 



Presented by Colonel L. H. Irby fy Captain S. G. Reid. 



No. 157. COMMON BUZZARD. 



(Buteo buteo or B. vulgaris.) 



Though still fairly numerous in many of the wilder parts of Scotland, 

 in the north-west of England and in Wales, this species is annually 

 decreasing in numbers, owing to the constant persecution to which it is 

 subjected. Its food consists chiefly of young rabbits and hares and 

 other small mammals, but reptiles, grasshoppers and other insects, as 

 well as small birds, are also eaten. The large nest of sticks and dead 

 heather is either built in a tree or placed on the ledge of a cliff, in the 

 neighbourhood of rabbit-burrows. Three or four greyish-white eggs, 

 blotched with reddish-brown and lilac, are usually laid in April j both 

 birds take part in the duties of incubation. 



The nest exhibited is a second one, the first having been destroyed. 



Ross-shire, June. 

 Presented by Captain S. G. Reid § fV. R. Ogilvie- Grant, Esq. 



No. 158. GOLDEN EAGLE. (Aquila chrysaetus.) 



Owing to the protection afforded by the proprietors of deer-forests, 

 the numbers of this grand bird of prey have greatly increased during 

 recent years. Its breeding-places are now confined to the highlands of 

 Scotland, the Hebrides, and the north and west of Ireland, but during 

 exceptionally cold seasons it sometimes visits the south of Scotland 

 and, very rarely, England. It feeds chiefly on mountain-hares, grouse, 

 and ptarmigan, occasionally taking lambs, fawns, and young red-deer; 

 and a nest, with one nearly full-fledged young eagle, was found to 



