VOL XIV.] NOTES. 135 



were all infertile, perhaps because the nest was very exposed 

 and the sun may have affected the eggs while the bird was 

 away. 



Of the eight nestlings kept under observation only one failed 

 to leave the nest ; most of the others were seen in the neigh- 

 bourhood of their birthplaces for some three weeks after they 

 could fly. This is the highest percentage I have known to 

 survive the nestling period since I kept notes on the subject. 



J. H. Owen. 



LITTLE OWL IN CARNARVONSHIRE. 



Ox October loth, 1920, I watched a Little Owl {Athene noctua 

 ynira) on the Great Orme's Head. When first seen it was 

 standing erect on a low wall near the lighthouse, but as I 

 approached it, it flew across the roadway on to a stone at the 

 mouth of a hole at the base of a cUff. Here I had a splendid 

 view of it with my glasses. Its flat, speckled head, prominent 

 white ej^e-stripes, narrow white half-collar over one of brown, 

 white round spots on the chocolate-brown wing-feathers, 

 the bright, lemon irides, and the short white hairs covering 

 its legs left me in no doubt as to the species. Upon my 

 stepping nearer, it flew back on to the wall, remained there a 

 few seconds, and then up into a crevice in the cliff some thirty 

 feet above the road, where I had further excellent views of it. 

 This apparently is the only definite record of its occurrence 

 in Carnarvonshire, Richard W. Jones. 



KESTRELS ATTACKING BATS. 

 On the evening of September 13th, 1920, the sun having 

 just set, I was on my way to a certain rocky headland in 

 Alderney. Whilst traversing a gorge, having on one side 

 an almost vertical wall, and watching a bat {V. pipistrellus) 

 passing to and fro and hawking for moths in its usual manner, 

 I was surprised to see a Kestrel [F. t. tinnunculus) sail out 

 from the side of the cliff and attack the bat. There was a 

 mix-up for perhaps a second or two, the bat emitted a squeak, 

 and then both made off in opposite directions — my presence 

 doubtless preventing a tragedy. The sky against which 

 both appeared when away from the cliff-side was particularly 

 clear and there could be no mistake, either as to the identity 

 of the Hawk or its intention, and I was only three or four 

 yards away at the time. Yarrell, quoting a correspondent 

 of Selby's, relates how late in the evening a Kestrel was seen 

 to prey upon a large swarm of cockchafers, so that it is 



