158 WOODLAND CREATURES 



maintaining the same position in the air for many 

 minutes at a time. With depressed and out- 

 spread tail, with vibrating wings, it hovers there, 

 not moving an inch either backwards or forwards, 

 and reminding one of a child's kite fluttering on 

 the breeze. Suddenly, as if the kite's string 

 had been relaxed, it drifts sideways, gliding off a 

 few yards, then stops, and again hovers on out- 

 stretched wings. Time after time will this be 

 repeated, the kestrel scanning each inch of the 

 ground below, and watching for any sign of life, 

 for any movement in tussocks and grass tufts 

 that may betray the whereabouts of a mouse ; 

 for, though so far above, its wonderful eyes will 

 instantly detect anything that stirs, especially 

 a meadow vole running along one of its tunnels 

 between the grass stems, when woe to that mouse 

 which has been so incautious as to show itself ! 

 No kite of which the string has been cut would 

 descend so swiftly to earth, for the kestrel closes 

 its wings and drops like a stone, falling on the 

 unsuspecting vole like, literally, a " bolt from 

 the blue." The mouse is gripped and carried 

 away before it has time to realize what has 

 happened ; before it was even aware that danger 

 was at hand. 



Here we find yet another difference between 

 our two common hawks, for the kestrel is a great 

 mouse-hunter, whereas the sparrow hawk never 

 touches fur, but prefers feathers. The number 

 of voles and mice that kestrels destroy in this 

 country in the course of a year must be simply 



