196 A NOBLE BIRD 



scanning that bold headland as an ideal site for a 

 nursery. 



Even the kestrels, I fear, have paid the penalty 

 incident to their warlike mien, for it is hard to persuade 

 gamekeepers that this beautiful little falcon is after no 

 nobler quarry than mice and beetles. It is true that 

 in pre-war days, when pheasants were reared by the 

 thousand in coops, an occasional kestrel became 

 demoralised and took to picking off the tender chicks ; 

 in which case no one could blame the keeper in charge 

 for laying the pirate low: but such instances are 

 quite exceptional ; as a rule, the kestrel is absolutely 

 inoffensive. Let not the sins of the sparrow-hawk, 

 with her yellow eyes and rounded, but extremely 

 serviceable, wings be visited on useful, mouse-hunting 

 Falco tinnunculus, for rest assured that one pair 

 of sparrow-hawks will destroy more game than fifty 

 kestrels. 



As for the merlin, the smallest of falcons, her courage 

 is as high as the peregrines, but she cannot tackle any- 

 thing bigger than a blackbird. Merlins do not soar, 

 but fly, as a rule, much lower than the peregrine and 

 the kestrel, thereby running much greater risk of being 

 shot. The wonder is that the species has not already 

 become extinct in the British Isles; but, as the late 

 Lord Lilford pointed out, the insular race is recruited 

 annually by merlins closely accompanying migrating 

 flocks of finches and larks. In one respect the merlin 

 resembles the peregrine in the habit of frequenting the 

 sea-coast in winter, where the peregrine pursues the 

 larger waders and waterfowl, the merlin the smaller. 



