THE KESTREL 



a very lengthy list, and is set apart for a knave, which 

 may mean, I take it, no higher personage than a 

 labourer or a serving-man. The kestrel, manifestly, 

 was considered scarcely worth keeping for the high 

 sport of falconry. 



Like all his kinsfolk, the kestrel is a very miracle 

 of patience. How many hours of the day does this 

 bird not spend in watching for his prey ? Spite of their 

 fierce habits, all the raptorials, from the condor to the 

 tiniest hawk, may be cited as shining examples of 

 this, one of the highest of all the virtues. How often 

 have I watched the kestrel soaring patiently on quiver- 

 ing wing, or sweeping with easy grace from one field 

 to another, watching for his dinner ! With him there 

 is no apparent haste or unseemly quarrelling with the 

 destiny that dooms him to search so long, so far, and 

 so widely for his food. The vulture that soars beyond 

 reach of human ken, far up in the clear turquoise of 

 the African sky, must, I am convinced, often go for 

 days without a meal. It is not possible that he should 

 find a dead or dying quarry more than occasionally. 

 Yet day after day these grim birds take their station 

 in the clear realms of space, waiting with infinite, nay, 

 with unexampled patience, for the food they need. 

 The example of all these raptorials is, surely, at once a 

 rebuke and a lesson to man, the most impatient and 

 querulous of all sentient creatures. 



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