Patten: Remarkable Nidification of a Kestrel. 307 
same condition. I tried to rouse her by pretending to attack 
her with my hand and by splashing her with cold water, but 
it was of no avail. A little later she began to utter a few 
faint squeaks at intervals. At 11-45 p.m. she gave a rather 
painful cry, and on going over to see what was the matter, I 
found she had laid an egg. Almost immediately she began to 
get lively, and so I had to exercise care lest she might seize 
the egg. Fortunately I succeeded in getting possession of it 
safely. 
Remarkable as this case of ovulation may be, the egg itself 
is none the less so. Although the usual brownish-red egg (so 
profusely pigmented that no trace of white is visible) may 
sometimes be represented by one richly mottled on a yellowish- 
white or pinkish ground-colour, I have never before seen a 
Kestrel’s egg such as this. It is milky-white in colour, 
almost unspotted, except at its larger end, where it is spotted 
and blotched with rich purplish-brown, intermixed with light 
greyish-purple, the whole pigmentation forming a ‘broken 
zonular band. The egg might be compared to an enlarged 
model of a Greenfinch’s egg, in which the ground-colour has 
lost its faint greenish hue. The texture of the shell is fine and 
thin, but sufficiently strong to allow of the contents being 
extruded by means of the blow-pipe. The egg is less 
rounded than usual at the smaller end, and resembles in 
shape an ordinary domestic fowl’s egg. In size it is perfectly 
normal, viz.: length, 3-9 cm.; breadth, 3 cm.; the average 
measurements given for the Kestrel’s egg by Saunders being : 
length, 4 cm.; breadth, 3:1 cm. That is to say my Kestrel’s 
egg is I mm. less than the normal in length and in breadth. 
It seems impossible to offer an explanation for this strange 
case of ovulation. But I may perhaps be allowed to refer to 
one point in connection with the bird’s diet just before she 
laid the egg. During my absence from home, which lasted 
four days, the bird was given sufficient food for that time, 
but it was all distributed on the first day. When I returned, 
the greater part was untouched, the reason being that the 
warm weather had affected the food sufficiently to render it 
adverse to the bird’s palate. Hence the hawk fasted for three 
days. On my return I gave her a plentiful supply of fresh ox 
spleen and liver which she gorged herself with, and this highly 
nutritious hearty meal, coming after a fast, and at the onset 
of a warm change in the weather, may have toned her to such 
a physiological state that her ovaries became sufficiently active 
to induce ovulation. Such an explanation is vague and theo- 
retical, and I give it only for what it is worth. The photograph 
was taken before the egg was blown, in order to secure the best 
results before slight fading of the pigment, subsequent to blow- 
ing, ensued. 
Igi1 Sept. I. 
