160 WOODLAND CREATURES 



appears most at home. As said before, nearly 

 every covert shelters a pair or more, whose lively 

 chatter we may hear in the early spring, and 

 again when the young ones are on the wing. 



Having got thus far in my account of the kestrel, 

 some description is necessary of its appearance. 

 I have said it is dark-eyed, and in each sex 

 there is a dark mark down the side of the 

 face. In the old male the upper parts are a 

 deep chestnut spotted and barred with black, 

 by contrast with which his grey head and tail 

 appear quite blue. His tail has a broad band 

 of black at the extremity, and is tipped with 

 white. His under-parts are creamy white varying 

 to buff, the breast being streaked with brown- 

 black, so that he is a beautiful, not to say very 

 showy, little hawk, but of course, as is usual with 

 birds of prey, he is much inferior in point of size 

 to his mate, being quite a third less in every 

 respect. Yet what she gains in size she loses in 

 the matter of gay plumage, being much more 

 soberly clad. She has not the grey head and 

 tail, the latter in her case being reddish, though 

 with a tinge of grey towards the end, and it is 

 barred with black throughout its length, but 

 in general respects her markings are like his. 

 The young up to their first moult resemble the 

 hen, the young cocks only acquiring the grey 

 head and blue-grey tail in their second summer. 



The male bird is certainly a gay little gentle- 

 man, and when he bows and scrapes in the antics 

 of courtship is particularly taking. He begins 



