218 BIRD-LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



works ; others at Daddy Hole. This pretty 

 Falcon may often be watched high in air above 

 the cliffs breasting the stiff breeze that blows in 

 off the sea, hovering and gliding, then drifting 

 inland over the fields, anon beating up to wind- 

 ward, all the time in a perpetual flutter and 

 tremble. When the young are hatched the old 

 birds are most persevering in their efforts to keep 

 them well supplied with food, the male and female 

 visiting the nest at short intervals, dashing up and 

 entering the fissure at full speed, like Swifts are 

 wont to do. In this locality a favourite food of 

 the Kestrel is the cockchafer. This insect is 

 sometimes very abundant along the coast, swarms 

 of them frequenting the tops of the hedges towards 

 sunset We have seen Kestrels charge again and 

 again through these swarms, seizing the cock- 

 chafers with their claws and conveying them thus 

 to the mouth without slacking their impetuous 

 speed. Another raptorial bird that we still have 

 with us in some numbers is the Common Buzzard. 

 Many birds of this species are from time to time 

 met with along the coast, and here and there a 

 pair make their nests in the cliffs. The very 

 characteristic soaring of this species once wit- 



