THE COMMON KESTREL. 



295 



which has nothing of the ferocity of the yellow iris of the Sparrow-Hawk. Some young birds belonging 

 to the writer, consisting of three females and a male, being left without food for a few hours by the 

 person in whose charge they were placed, forgot their fraternal affection, and the larger hen birds set 

 upon the male, who was not so large or strong as they were, and devoured him completely. When 

 shooting in a sandy island near Heligoland also, the writer wounded a Dunlin, which floated on the 

 water a considerable distance out at sea, and whilst waiting for the waves to bring the bird in to land 

 a Kestrel hove in sight and made a 

 swoop at the Dunlin, which the latter 

 avoided by a rapid dive. Twenty-three 

 times the Hawk repeated the manoeuvre 

 without success, until the poor little 

 wader became exhausted, and was borne 

 in the talons of his relentless foe to- 

 wards the rock of Heligoland, about a 

 mile off. This action had been wit- 

 nessed also by Messrs Seebohm and 

 Nicholson, from other parts of the same 

 sandy island, and the latter kept pace 

 with the Kestrel as it skirted the beach, 

 in the hopes that it might cross the 

 island, when a shot would perhaps 

 have caused the bird to drop his ex- 

 hausted quarry. The Hawk, however, 

 kept well out at sea, and regained his 

 rocky home, though he was several 

 times seen to pause in his flight and 

 take a tighter grasp of his victim. 



The nest of the Kestrel is often 

 placed in towers and old buildings, and 

 the bird is sometimes to be seen round 



the Nelson monument in Trafalgar Square, but a tree is more frequently the site selected, when 

 an old Crow's or Raven's nest is often chosen. The hen bird, as is the case with most Hawks, 

 sits very close, and will often require a stick or stone to be thrown close to the nest before it 

 will m<3ve off, and the sudden drop which it gives is often the means of saving its life, as the chance of 

 a successful shot is difficult. The eggs are from four to six in number, and are rather handsomely 

 coloured, being blotched with rufous on a white ground, and are not unfrequently entirely rufous. 



In most of the Kestrels the sexes differ conspicuously in colour, the females being barred. This 

 is the case in the common species, where the male has a blue head and tail. In the size of the sexes 

 there is little or no difference, each measuring about twelve inches and a half. In winter, when there 

 are fewer mice and beetles about, the Kestrel shifts his quarters, and becomes to a certain extent 

 migratory : at this season of the year it visits India and Africa, not extending, however, so far down 

 the latter continent as some of the European birds go. It is abundant at certain seasons in north- 

 eastern Africa and Senegambia, but seldom goes as far as the Cape. The most easterly occurrence 

 that is known of the Common Kestrel is the island of Borneo, though it is a common bird in China. 

 It should be mentioned, however, that the Kestrel is always darker in colour from Japan and China, 

 so much so that many naturalists consider it to be a distinct species from the British bird. 



COMMON KESTREL. 



