KESTREL. 99 



this I received five eggs from another Kestrel's nest, which 

 were exactly like those I had previously, after they were washed.' 



The following curious circumstance is thus pleasingly related 

 by the Rev. W. Turner, of Uppingham, in the 'Zoologist,' pages 

 2296-7: 'In the summer of 1847 two young Kestrels were 

 reared from the nest, and proved to be male and female: they 

 were kept in a commodious domicile built for them in an open 

 yard, where they lived a life of luxury and ease. This sum- 

 mer a young one of the same species was brought and put 

 into the same apartment; and, strange to say, the female 

 Kestrel, sensible (as we suppose) of the helpless condition of 

 the new-comer, immediately took it under her protection. As 

 it was too infantine to perch, she kept it in one corner of the 

 cage, and for several days seldom quitted its side; she tore in 

 pieces the food given to her, and assiduously fed her young 

 charge, exhibiting as much anxiety and alarm for its safety 

 as its real parent could have done. But what struck me as 

 very remarkable, she would not allow the male bird, with whom 

 she lived on the happiest terms, to come near the young one. 

 As the little stranger increased in strength and intelligence, 

 her attentions and alarm appeared gradually to subside, but 

 she never abandoned her charge, and its sleek and glossy 

 appearance afforded ample proof that it had been well cared 

 for. The three are now as happy as confined birds can be. 



The late Frederick Holme, Esq., of Corpus Christ! College, 

 Oxford, records that a nest of this species was observed to 

 have been begun near that city; a trap was set, and five 

 male birds were caught on successive days, without the oc- 

 currence of a single female; the last of them 'being a young 

 bird of the year in complete female plumage.' Again, at 

 page 2765, the Rev. Henry E. Crewe, of Breadsall Rectory, 

 Derbyshire, relates the following pleasing anecdote: 'About 

 four years ago, my children procured a young Kestrel, which, 

 when able to fly, I persuaded them to give it its liberty: 

 it never left the place, but became attached to them. In 

 the spring of the following year we missed him for nearly a 

 week, and thought he had been shot; but one morning I 

 observed him soaring about with another of his species, which 

 proved to be a female. They paired, and laid several eggs 

 in an old dove-cote, about a hundred yards from the Rectory; 

 but being disturbed that season, as I thought, by some White 

 Owls, the eggs were never hatched. The next spring he 

 again brought a mate: they again built, and reared a nest 



