56 THE KESTRIL. 



probably ever enjoyed. The first of these authorities describes 

 it as a sort of intermediate bird between the Hawks and Owls : 

 "Its onward flight," he says, " has not the dash and rapidity of 

 the former ; but its power of hovering over the same spot, in 

 defiance of the wind, is much greater, and when that is neces- 

 sary, it comes down in beautiful style." This habit of hovering 

 for a while over a particular spot, has gained for the bird two of 

 the names by which it is popularly known in this country the 

 Wind-hover, and the Stannel,or Stand-gale, as it is more correctly 

 pronounced. The bird is also sometimes called Ston-gale, Stem- 

 gale, Keelie, and Sparrow-hawk ; the latter appellation, however; 

 properly belongs to another bird of the same genus, the Falco 

 nisus of LINNAEUS, the Accipiter nisus, of MACGILLIVEAY, who in 

 his animated description of the Rapacious Birds of Britain, says 

 that " The Kestril is easily tamed ; and according to WILLOTJGHBY 

 and others, was formerly employed by idle people for seizing 

 small birds and young Partridges." 



From a very curious work on Falconry, by DAME JULIANA 

 BERNEES, frequently reprinted in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and 

 seventeenth centuries, we learn that the Kestril ranked very low 

 as a sporting bird. After stating that the Eagle, the Vulture, and 

 the Merlin of their nature belong to an emperor ; the Gyr falcon 

 and the Tercel to a king ; the Falcon-gentle and the Tercel-gentle 

 to a prince; the Sparrow-hawk to a priest; the Musket to a 

 holy-water clerk ; it concludes with assigning the Kestril to a 

 knave or servant. MUDIE speaks of it as " Much less bold and 

 noble in its hunting than the Merlin," although BIJFFON tells us 

 of the Cresserelle, as it is called in France, that it sometimes 

 carries off a Bed Partridge much heavier than itself; and that it 

 often also catches Pigeons which straggle from the flocks, while 

 its most common prey, next to field mice and reptiles, is Spar- 

 rows, Chaffinches, and other small birds. That it is a great de- 

 stroyer of field mice, and therefore a friend to the agriculturist, 

 is clearly shown by WATEETON ; and SELBY relates some curious 

 particulars with regard to its fondness for coleopterous insects, 

 which it seizes and devours while on the wing. 



" On his librating wing he was oft seen apart, 



And appeared on his prey ever ready to dart," 



says JENNINGS, in his Ornithologia, thus describing in a word 

 that habit of the bird to which allusion has been before made ; and 

 of which G-ILBEET WHITE thus speaks : " The Kestril, or Wind- 

 hover, has a peculiar mode of hanging in the air in oneplace, 

 his wings all the while being briskly agitated." The Kestril 

 builds no nest for itself, generally appropriating the deserted 

 nest of the Crow or Magpie to its own use, laying four or fivo 



