98 KESTKEL. 



had no mate that year. Last winter a male Kestrel pursued 

 a small bird so resolutely as to dash through a window in one 

 of the cottages here, and they brought the bird to me. I 

 put him into the aviary with the hen bird, and they lived 

 happily together all the summer, and built a nest or scratched 

 a hole in the ground, and she laid five eggs, sat steadily, and 

 brought off and reared two fine young ones.' Some pairs of 

 Kestrels seem to keep together throughout the winter. About 

 the end of March is the period of nidification. The young 

 are at first fed with insects, and with animal food as they 

 progress towards maturity. They are hatched the latter end 

 of April, or the beginning of May. 



The nest, which is placed in rocky cliffs on the sea-coast 

 or elsewhere, is also, when it suits the purpose of the birds, 

 built on trees; in fact quite as commonly as in the former 

 situations; sometimes in the holes of trees or of banks, as also 

 occasionally on ancient ruins; the towers of churches, even in 

 towns and cities, both in the country and in London itself, 

 also in dove-cotes. Sometimes the deserted nest of a Magpie, 

 Haven, or Jackdaw, or some other of the Crow kind is made 

 use of. When built in trees, the nest is composed of a few 

 sticks and twigs, put together in a slovenly manner, and lined 

 with a little hay, wool, or feathers. When placed on rocks, 

 hardly any nest is compiled a hollow in the bare rock or 

 earth* serving the purpose. Mr. Thompson mentions a curious 

 fact of a single female Kestrel having laid and sat on four 

 eggs of the natural colour, in April, 1848, after having been 

 four years in confinement. 



The eggs, which are of an elliptical form, and four or 

 five in number, sometimes as many as six six young birds 

 having been found in one nest, are dingy white, reddish brown, 

 or yellowish brown, more or less speckled or marbled over 

 with darker and lighter specks or blots of the same. Mr. 

 Yarrell says that the fifth egg has been known to -weigh several 

 grains less than either of those previously deposited, and it 

 has also less colouring matter spread over the shell than the 

 others; both effects probably occasioned by the temporary 

 constitutional exhaustion the bird has sustained. In the 

 'Zoologist,' page 2596, Mr. J. B. Ellman, of Eye, writes, 'this 

 year I received some eggs of the Kestrel, which were rather 

 dirty; so after blowing them, I washed them in cold water, 

 and much to my surprise the whole colour came off, leaving 

 the eggs of a dirty yellow, speckled with drab. Not long after 



