THE KESTREL 169 



was found in a village street after a thunderstorm. 

 Her feathers were so soaked she could not get 

 upon the wing. At first it seemed as if she 

 must have flown into the telegraph wires and 

 hurt herself, but there was not the slightest trace 

 of injury, and the next day she was quite all right, 

 so that the only conclusion possible was that 

 the downpour had wetted her to such an extent 

 as to make her quite helpless. Just to see what 

 could be done with an old, wild-caught kestrel, 

 I kept her for a little while. By the end of the 

 first day she was eating freely on the fist, she 

 jumped to it for food the second, the third she 

 came quite eagerly, and before the week was 

 out she would come any reasonable distance to 

 either fist or lure. Yet she saw comparatively 

 little of me ; I could give but little time to 

 carrying her about, and the amount of attention 

 she got would not have kept a sparrow hawk 

 half tame, let alone reclaimed it from wildness. 

 It shows what a difference there is in the tem- 

 perament of the two species. 



This mention of a tame kestrel reminds me to 

 say, for the benefit of anyone who may wish to 

 handle live specimens of either of our two common 

 hawks, that their modes of defence are quite 

 different. The sparrow hawk when annoyed and 

 on the defensive uses its feet, striking most 

 viciously with them, but never biting or making 

 any use of its beak ; the kestrel does exactly the 

 reverse, biting like a parrot, but not employing 

 its feet* 



