35 



KESTREL. 

 Case 48. 



This is by far the most numerous of the Hawk 

 tribe in Great Britain. Though not generally so 

 regarded, it is one of our most useful birds, being 

 a decided ally to both farmer and game 

 preserver. I have been so frequently assured that 

 Kestrels have been detected preying upon young 

 game, that I suppose some misguided old bird 

 must, when greatly pressed by the cares of provid- 

 ing for a hungry brood, have snatched some 

 precocious young pheasant from the neighbourhood 

 of the coops, and, like many another poor bungling 

 thief, been caught at the first attempt, while, the 

 greater rogues go free. The rats alone that these 

 birds destroy while procuring food for their young 

 would commit ten times more damage in one year 

 than the poor inoffensive Kestrels could possibly 

 effect in their whole lives. 



This bird breeds in a variety of situations. In 

 the south it may be found nesting in chalk pits and 

 in the cliffs overhanging the sea. In the midland 

 counties it will make use of any old deserted nest 

 when other accommodation cannot be found ; and 

 on the moors in the north the steep rocky faces of 

 the numerous ravines and old ruined buildings are 

 for the most part resorted to. In the summer of 

 1868, I found a brood of young Kestrels on a 

 perfectly bare spot on an open moor in Sutherland, 

 and in the following year I was shown three eggs 

 on a shelf in a shepherd's shealing on Ben Alisky, 

 in Caithness, which had only been deserted by its 

 rightful owners the previous month ; the bird 

 making its escape through a hole in the chimney 

 while we were entering the building. 



The specimens in the case were obtained along 

 the coast near Canty Bay, in East Lothian, in 

 June, 1867. The case itself is copied from a 



