BIRDS 



259 



barn-owl (Strix flammea). The kestrel frequents churches, castles, towers, high 

 old walls, ruins, and rocks, but where it does not find these is content to dwell in 

 forests and their outskirts, especially when they contain many pine-trees. It 

 occasionally makes its nest in isolated trees, but, when it chooses a hole in a cliff, 

 there is no nest worth mentioning, and, as a rule, it captures a nest ready-made 

 by driving away the crows, magpies, or pigeons to whom it may belong, or by 

 taking possession of it when < 



deserted. Sometimes the 

 nest is found among those 

 of jackdaws, rock-doves, 

 rooks, herons, or sea-gulls. 

 In the Wiirtemburg and 

 Baden districts of the Black 

 Forest the kestrel nests in 

 the baskets hung up on the 

 gables of their roofs by the 

 peasants, who think that by 

 the presence of the kestrel 

 they may keep off the 

 goshawk. This falcon lays 

 from four to seven eggs, 

 blotched and clouded with 

 several shades of chestnut : 

 the young, if hatched on 

 trees, leave the nest before 

 they are able to fly pro- 

 perly, but they remain there 

 longer when it is on a wall 

 or in a hole. The kestrel 

 feeds on beetles, grass- 

 hoppers, and other insects, 

 as well as on frogs, moles, 

 lizards, and particularly mice 

 and field-mice : only excep- 

 tionally does it prey on 

 birds. Flying quickly and 

 easily, it often stops sud- 

 denly in its flight, and some- 

 times hovers for a while at 

 ■a considerable height, looking down for its prey. When going far it flies with 

 quick movements of its wings, interrupted by short hovering pauses ; and, when 

 looking keenly at any object, moves its head quickly up and down like an owl. 



The barn-owl is abundant in most parts of the Continent, where 

 it never dwells in forests and mountains, but prefers steeples, old 

 ruined walls, barns, and deserted dove-cots. In South Africa it is said to live 

 among rocks, and in America partly in the hollows of trees. It is a resident bird, 



BAEX-OWL. 



Barn-Owl. 



