NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



a kestrel will not attack a full-grown partridge or 

 grouse — taken by these small falcons during the course 

 of the year must be almost infinitesimal. Yet, not- 

 withstanding the warnings, the protests, and the advice 

 that have been proffered on this head, the average 

 keeper still clings grimly to the habit of his forefathers 

 and slays the beautiful and utterly harmless "wind- 

 hover " whenever he gets a fair chance. Here and 

 there, on an estate where the master takes an intelligent 

 interest in nature and wild life, the keepers may have 

 orders to leave kestrels alone ; but as a rule this hand- 

 some little falcon, one of the most characteristic of our 

 British raptorial birds, is ruthlessly destroyed, and 

 nailed shamefully, among malevolent and dangerous 

 vermin, to the barn door. 



The kestrel, locally known by various names — wind- 

 hover, stannelhawk, kastril, stonegall, and creshawk — 

 is one of the most familiar, as it is one of the most 

 interesting features of our rural landscapes. Hover- 

 ing, head to wind, motionless, or all but motionless, 

 with the merest flicker of its long and powerful wings, 

 over field or down, it may at once be recognised by all 

 but the most unsophisticated or inattentive observers. 

 It cannot be mistaken for any other hawk or falcon by 

 any one in the least acquainted with the familiar birds 

 of our countryside, and the keeper or sportsman bring- 

 ing it down may rest assured that in destroying it he 

 destroys one of the most harmless of all our British 

 avi-fauna. Every gunner who has a shooting, every 

 landlord, ought to make it a point with his keepers 

 that not a single kestrel shall be shot on his estate. 



With its lovely rufous and grey colouring, its elegant 

 shape, worthy of the true falcons, to which it belongs, 

 its fine flight and its bold and independent mien, the 

 windhover ought surely to be allowed to remain un- 



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