KESTREL 



branch of a tall tree, quite close to the nest, and the parent bird 

 flew from this perch, made a large circle, and returned. Then one 

 of her youngsters attempted this feat, and succeeded fairly well until 

 the branch was nearly reached, but he failed to arrive in safety. 

 Nothing daunted, round he went again and again, and not until 

 many brave attempts had been made was he able to stand on his feet 

 again. Then others tried and failed quite as ignominiously, and 

 several times their mother preceded them in their flight and showed 

 them how to reach the perch in safety. 



I have always liked the Kestrel because he is one of the few 

 birds of prey that we find in our country meadows. In my search 

 after the rare birds of this country I have seen some of the wildest 

 and grandest scenery to be found in our islands rocky dingles over 

 which Buzzards ' mew,' and the great bleak hills amongst which 

 the Raven roams ; far-stretching moors and towering grey hills 

 where the Golden Eagle is king ; and frowning precipices washed 

 bare for two hundred feet by winter seas, where the Fulmar 

 Petrel finds a safe and secure nesting-site ; large tracts of dark 

 forests and quaking bogs, where birds are few, and seldom seen ; and 

 rough stone-covered deer forests, through which one could travel 

 for days and yet not see the same things twice. 



But for real beauty give me the simple English meadow or 

 roadside coppice in which the Warblers sing their little songs, and 

 the primrose lifts his face to the springtime sun. The first summer 

 rose, a delicate pink amidst the surrounding green, is a greater 

 picture of spring than ever the sunlit sea could be ; and a Kestrel 

 hovering over a meadow, yellow with summer's flowers, tells us a 

 deeper story than the Eagle soaring over a wind-swept moor. 



The food of the Kestrel consists of all kinds of small birds, 

 mice and beetles ; but when pressed for food it will take birds as 

 large as a Thrush or a Starling. I have seen a Kestrel pick up a 

 Starling that was feeding quite close to a grazing cow, and to capture 



13 B* 



