226 The Keeper's Tree. 



osprey has once taken a fancy to a particular pond or stream it 

 never leaves it as long as it is unmolested and the supply of food lasts. 



The osprey is a dark-looking hawk, hardly as large as the kite, 

 and may always be known by the white unspotted breast and belly, 

 the blue legs and feet, and the tail, which is fully two inches shorter 

 than the closed wings. 



The kite is known to every keeper by the deeply-cloven tail 3 is 

 not much more destructive to game than the common buzzard. 



None of the family are, however, so destructive, so obnoxious to 

 the keeper as the falcons, for their courage and powers of flight are 

 superior to those of any other birds of prey. 



We have already noticed the only two large falcons which are 

 known in Britain, but we have still three left — three real little pests, 

 which should never be spared. These are the kestrel, the merlin, 

 and the hobby, and these, with the sparrow-haw^k, are the only four 

 small hawks which the British keeper need dread. 



The commonest of all is the kestrel, and the male and female are 

 so unlike, that most keepers suppose them to be different species. 

 In the kestrel the tail extends one-fourth of its length beyond the 

 closed wings, and this will distinguish it at once from either of the 

 others. In the female the tail is red-brown, with about ten dark 

 bars across it. In the mail the tail is blue-grey, only with a broad 

 dark tip. The body-colour of the male is deep red 5 in the female 

 and young birds, red-brown -, length about fourteen inches. 



The hobby is smaller — the tail is shorter than the wings, and in 

 plumage it is not unlike the peregrine ; upper parts dark bluish- 

 black, with a small moustache on the cheek, and a white chin. In 

 the old bird the thigh feathers are pale rusty red, unspotted j in the 

 young birds they are covered with dark oblong spots. 



There is another species of hobby common on the Continent, 

 very rare in Britain, the orange-legged hobby, which may be 

 •^nown at once from the last one, by the nearly black body colour, 

 the tail being exactly equal in length with the closed wings ; the 

 thighs, feet, legs, and under tail coverts are deep red instead of 

 rusty yellow. 



