KESTRELS 201 



people believe that, if they go too often near the young gold- 

 finches in their cage, they will one day find them all suddenly 

 dead ; and of the fact of their simultaneous and sudden deaths, 

 when so confined to be fed by the old birds, I have myself been 

 more than once aware. Ferrets will destroy their young if 

 looked at or touched too often or too soon, and so will rabbits ; 

 and there may be something of the same animus in birds, when, 

 as they cannot eat their young, as the ferret and rabbit will do, 

 they may have some other means of destroying life. 



Some people suppose that the kestrel or windhover hawk is 

 not a vermin ; and I have even seen it set down by a writer 

 claiming to be a naturalist and sporting authority, that that 

 hawk has been erroneously denounced as a destroyer of game. 

 All I know is, that I have shot dozens of them in the act of 

 carrying off my young pheasants and partridges, as well as 

 chickens from the hen-coops, besides finding the legs of young 

 game in their nests, and shooting them in the fields in the act 

 of eating young partridges. 1 Snakes will take young partridges 

 and pheasants recently hatched, or, indeed, anything alive that 

 they can swallow ; and I have no doubt but that the adder will 

 do the same. Squirrels are very destructive to young planta- 

 tions, particularly to the fir, taking off the whole of the year's 

 shoot, and eating it, besides sucking the eggs of game, which I 

 once shot them doing. I saw by the manner in which the 

 squirrel handled the egg and carried it up a tree, that he knew 

 very well what he was about ; and ever after that, where there 

 was a preserve of pheasants, I have killed them. When there 

 are no pheasants their graceful agility and pretty ways have 

 saved them from my gun. Speaking of pets, my poor cor- 

 morant, who, though a female, went by the name of Jack, had 



1 I believe this to be a misstatement. Occasionally the kestrel gets 

 into the vicious habit of frequenting coops where young pheasants are, and 

 preying on the chicks, in which case, of course, it must be destroyed. 

 But the staple food of this beautiful little falcon consists of mice, voles 

 and insects, and although I have closely watched kestrels, and caused 

 them to be strictly preserved on my estates, I have never known them do 

 the slightest injury to game. ED. 



