THE KESTREL 163 



but slight preparation of the site the hen 

 proceeds to her egg laying. As is the case with 

 so many other birds, she begins incubation before 

 the last one is laid, sometimes commencing to 

 sit when there are only two or three in the 

 nest, so the first young one hatches days ahead 

 of the last. 



The nestlings are queer little mites clad in 

 greyish-white down, and are at first very weak 

 and helpless, but their mother most carefully 

 breaks up the food brought in by the cock and 

 feeds them on tiny bits of it. They soon wax 

 strong and are able to sit up and tear their own 

 meat to pieces, but the parents continue to be 

 most attentive to them, and whatever may be 

 the kestrel's character in other respects, it shows 

 no idleness or laziness when food is needed for 

 its family, but hunts for the nestlings most un- 

 tiringly. The old birds feel the strain the greatest 

 when the young are nearly full grown and full 

 fledged, for they then have tremendous appetites, 

 and are continually in want of food. It is then 

 that a kestrel may become somewhat less par- 

 ticular what it takes, and young thrushes, 

 blackbirds, etc., may find their way to that 

 platform of twigs in the tall old spruce where those 

 five or six youngsters gaze down at the wide 

 world below them. 



It is said above that they get more and more 

 voracious as their feathers appear, and it is 

 wonderful how quickly their plumage comes. 

 The tips of the flight feather appear first, then 



