396 THE GAME PRESERVER'S GUIDE, 



THE KESTREL (Tinnunculus alaudarius). 



The Kestrel or Windhover, also called the Stonegall or 

 Standgale, is one of the most graceful birds known in this 

 country, and may be distinguished from all others by its 

 habit of suspending itself over some fixed point with out- 

 spread tail and its head always to windward, accompanied by 

 a peculiarly quick motion of the wings, from which it has 

 derived its name of " Windhover" and " Standgale." While 

 in this position it is watching some mouse, or possibly a young 

 leveret, which it will no doubt occasionally take; but for one 

 of these which it seizes, it will probably kill a hundred mice. 

 I have opened the stomachs of scores of these birds, and have 

 never yet seen the remains of a leveret. Once, it is true, I 

 came upon a portion of what looked like the skin of a young 

 rabbit, but it might have been that of a rat, as I did not 

 wash and dry it. At all events it had not the colour of the 

 leveret. A large proportion of the contents was composed 

 of mice, with a very few small birds of various kinds. Still, 

 it cannot be said to be to the game preserver sans peur et 

 sans reproclie ; for it has neither courage enough boldly to 

 attack game whenever it comes in its way, nor can it always 

 resist the temptation afforded by a delicate leveret which it 

 may espy in the grass when in search of mice. Selby says that 

 they feed on cockchafers during their season, and Montague 

 affirms that he never found any feathers in their,stomachs; but 

 I certainly must give my evidence in favour of their occasionally 

 killing small birds as I have mentioned above. A large pro- 

 portion of those I have examined have been young ones 

 barely fledged, and perhaps at that season the parent birds 

 may be more rapacious than at other seasons, and may also 

 be able more readily to strike young larks and other ground 

 birds in their favourite method by suddenly stooping on 

 them. The kestrel is universally found throughout the 

 United Kingdom. Its length is from thirteen inches in the 

 male to fifteen inches in the female. The former has the 

 beak blue ; cere and eyelids yellow ; iris dark brown ; crown, 

 cheeks, and nape of the neck ash grey streaked with dusky 

 brown ; upper parts of body of a rich fawn colour, each 

 feather spotted with black on the extreme point; wing 



