CHAPTER XXI 

 THE KESTREL 



Gamekeeper's trophies — A gruesome spectacle — Ignorance of keepers 

 — Needless slaughter — Local names — Habits — Differences between 

 male and female — Nesting-places — Familiarity with mankind — 

 Migrations — Wide distribution — Kestrels in South Africa — In other 

 parts of the world — Cuckoos and kestrels — Kestrels easily tamed — 

 Restlessness during migratory period — The kestrel's humble place 

 in falconry. 



WANDERING over the pleasant Berkshire downs 

 last autumn, in the neighbourhood of Compton 

 and Ilsley, I came on an old barn, to the side of which 

 was nailed many a trophy of the gamekeeper's prowess. 

 The weather-beaten carcasses of weasels, stoats, carrion- 

 crows, and jays were all there — rightly enough from 

 the game preserver's point of view, for all these 

 creatures are in one way or another dangerous foes 

 to game-birds. But, unhappily, alongside these 

 marauders were nailed also the bodies of eight kestrels, 

 clear proof that the gamekeeper responsible for this 

 grisly array had little knowledge of his business, or of 

 the habits of the slain birds. By this time, one would 

 think, every keeper in Britain ought to know that this 

 beautiful little falcon preys scarcely ever upon game. 

 Its food consists largely of mice, frogs, lizards, beetles, 

 grasshoppers, and other insects and their larvae, and 

 occasionally, but not very often, small birds. When 

 cockchafers abound kestrels seem to favour them as 

 articles of diet. The quantity of young game-birds — 



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