172 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. xiv. 



cottage. In the course of a lew days the man who had turned 

 them out iniblocked the hole for the purpose of seeing how 

 far the Kestrels had progressed with their domestic arrange- 

 ments, but he quite forgot to replace the clod of earth when 

 he had finished. AMthin a very few hours the Kestrels had 

 returned to their original home, in which they subsequently 

 reared a brood. 



The behaviour of this species before the more strenuous 

 duties of incubation began is worthy of note. The birds in 

 Ormanli spent many hours circling and swooping about in 

 the air, above or near their nests, uttering incessantly a harsh 

 " Kee-chee-chee." Most of the sunnier hours of the day would 

 be spent in this manner, and at dusk all the birds in the 

 neighbourhood would form into one large band and repeat 

 the performance. Each pair of birds also had their own 

 favourite perch — usually a particular twig on the tree nearest 

 to their nest. Here they would huddle most affectionately 

 together. 



The females sat very close, and, scrambling up the mud 

 walls to look at eggs, I was twice flicked in the face by the 

 wing of a parent bird which had remained on its eggs till the 

 last moment. Sometimes, if the eggs were not very far back, 

 I would come face to face with the sitting bird. It was 

 simple to catch the old birds by putting a piece of net over the 

 entrance hole and I saw one man catch a female by grabbing 

 her as she darted off the eggs. On one occasion a male flew 

 into a room in pursuit of a large grasshopper and was captured. 



Copulation was first noticed at the beginning of April, and 

 was very frequent about the 19th of the month. It usually 

 took place on the topmost slender twig of a tree and in such a 

 precarious position that both sexes had to extend their wings 

 and strive hard to maintain their balance. A low chattering, 

 which is a peculiarly penetrating noise, was made the whole 

 time. For a long time I believed that this noise was only 

 made during the process of mating, but on a later occasion 

 a pair were heard chattering gentlj^ to each other as they sat 

 at rest on the bough of a pomegranate bush. 



A nest in Ormanli contained two eggs on April 22nd. On 

 June 8th a nest of young at Elisan were at least a week old. 



Lizards undoubtedly form a large part of the food of this 

 species. It was a common sight to see a bird frying about 

 with a lizard grasped in its feet, the reptile's long tail dangling 

 down conspicuously. The reason for carrying food about 

 in the air for some time is a little obscure. It may be that 

 the bird is looking for a suitable place to eat its prey, or 



