FALCONS. 



189 



winter into the north of China, India, and North-Eastern Africa, and occasionally 

 straying into the western and southern parts of the latter continent. It is replaced 

 in the New World by the so-called American sparrow-hawk {F. sjmrvorius), in 

 which the centre of the crown of the head of the male is rufous, and the 

 wing-coverts Ijlue with bhick spots. Although its chief food consists of mice 

 and voles, the kestrel occasionally kills small birds, and will also eat frogs, beetles, 

 worms, and grubs, while in India it frequently devours lizards. That it will 



THE KESTREL (J nat. hUL 



occasionally kill a young partridge or chicken is doubtless true, but such small 

 robberies are far more than counterbalanced by the benefits it confers on the 

 agriculturist by the destruction of liosts of pernicious rodents, and it ouglit 

 therefore to be carefully preserved, instead of being ruthlessly shot down. Altliough 

 occasionally placed in a hollow tree, the nest is more generally situated among 

 rocks or old Imildings, while still more frequently the deserted nest of some 

 other bird, such as a crow, magpie, or raven is taken advantage of. The eggs, 

 usually four f)r five, but sometimes six in number, may be either mottled all over 

 with brownish I'od or orange, or blotchcil with these colours upon a liglit ground. 

 They are generally hatched late in April, or early in the following month. 



