KESTREL. 97 



the habit of the other Hawks. Buffon relates that 'when 

 it has seized and carried off a bird, it kills it, and plucks it 

 very neatly before eating it. It does not take so much 

 trouble with mice, for it swallows the smaller whole, and tears 

 the others to pieces. The skin is rolled up so as to form a 

 little pellet, which it ejects from the mouth. On putting 1 

 these pellets into hot water to soften and unravel them, you 

 find the entire skin of the mouse, as if it had been flayed.' 

 This, however, is said by Mr. Macgillivray, never to be the 

 case, but that the skin is always in pieces. Probably in some 

 instances there may be foundation for the assertion of the 

 Count, but only as exceptions to the general rule. 



Meyer observes, which every one who has seen the bird will 

 confirm, as frequently, though not always the case, that 'when 

 engaged in searching for its food, it will suffer the very near 

 approach of an observer without shewing any alarm, or desisting 

 from its employment, and continue at the elevation of a few 

 yards from the ground, with out-spread tail, and stationary, 

 except the occasional tremulous flickering of its wings; then, as 

 if suddenly losing sight of the object of its search, it wheels 

 about, and shifts its position, and is again presently seen at a 

 distance, suspended and hovering in the same anxious search.' 

 In the ardour of the chase, the Windhover has been known to 

 drive a lark into the inside of a coach as it was travelling along ; 

 and another to brush against a person's head, in dashing at 

 a sparrow which was flitting in a state of bewildered entrance- 

 ment in a myrtle bush. Mr. Thompson mentions his having 

 seen a Kestrel after a long and close chase of a swallow 

 through all its turns and twists, become in its turn pursued 

 by the same individual bird. They are often followed and 

 teased by several small birds together, as well as by Hooks, 

 as hereafter to be mentioned when treating of the latter bird. 



The note of the Windhover is clear, shrill, and rather 

 loud, and is rendered by Buffon by the words *pli, pli, pi!,' 

 or 'pri, pri, pri.' 



I am indebted to my obliging friend, the Rev. J. W. Bower, 

 of Barmston, in the East-liiding, for the first record that I 

 am aware of, of the breeding of the Kestrel in confinement. 

 The following is an extract from his letter dated November 

 80fch., 1849, relating the circumstance: 'A pair of Kestrels 

 bred this summer in my aviary. The female was reared 

 from a nest about four years ago, and the year after scratched 

 a hole in the ground, and laid six or seven eggs, but she 



VOL. I. H 



