94 KESTREL. 



be admitted from the nature of its prey, brought together 

 in vast profusion at the same period of time, to be an excep- 

 tional one. I am not aware of any Hawks which build in 

 company in the same way that rooks do: and I have never 

 yet heard of a Kestrelry. The fact of the dispersion of the 

 young birds is nothing more than might, from the nature of 

 their habit of life, be looked for. Their very parents may 

 expel them, as is the case with other birds of the same tribe. 

 They have come together from roaming over the face of the 

 country, to some situation suitable for them to build in, and 

 a like dispersion of their offspring is the natural course of 

 things. 



As to any total, or almost total disappearance of the species 

 in winter, it is most certainly not the general fact, whatever 

 may appear to be the case in any particular locality or localities. 

 The only one I ever shot, the brightest coloured specimen, 

 by the way, I ever saw, was in the depth of winter, and it 

 fell on the same day as did the Merlin which I have spoken 

 of, as having had the misfortune to come across my path, 

 upon snow-covered ground, with its beautiful wings stretched 

 out, for the last time, poor bird. In the parts of Yorkshire 

 in which I have lived, the county with reference to which 

 the observations I have alluded to have been made, and I 

 have lived in all three Hidings, though my assertion at present 

 applies to the East only, I have never observed any diminu- 

 tion in the number of Kestrels that are seen in the winter, 

 from those which are to be seen in summer, hovering over the 

 open fields. It would seem very possible, from the different 

 observations that have been made, that they may make some 

 partial migrations in quest of a better supply of food. 



Still after what I h?~ T e said, I must not be understood as 

 unhesitatingly asserting that none of our British born and 

 bred Kestrels cross the sea to foreign parts. It would be 

 presumptuous in any one to hazard such an assertion: in this, 

 as in most other supposed matters c f fact, our ignorance leaves 

 but too abundant room for difference of opinion. 'There be 

 three things,' says Solomon, 'which are too wonderful for me, 

 yea, four which I know not;' and one of these he declares 

 to be the way of an Eagle in the air.' We need not be ashamed 

 of keeping company with him in a candid confession of our 

 own shortsightedness. 



Since writing the above, I find that Mr. Macgillivray re- 

 marks that in the districts bordering on the Frith of Forth, 



