31 
KESTREL. 
WINDHOVER. STONEGALL. STANNEL HAWK. 
PLATE XVII. 
Falco Tinnunculus, . ; y : Montagu. SE.sy. 
Accipiter alaudarius, . ; : . Brisson. 
Some pairs of Kestrels seem to keep together through- 
out the winter. About the end of March is the period 
of nidification. The young are hatched the latter end 
of April; and are at first fed with insects, and with 
animal food as they advance towards maturity. _ 
I am indebted to my obliging friend, the Rev. John 
William Bower, Rector of Barmston, in the East-Riding, 
for the first record, that I am aware of, of the breeding 
of the Kestrel in confinement. The following is an 
extract from his letter dated November the 50th., 1849, 
relating the circumstance:—“A pair of Kestrels bred 
this summer in my aviary. ‘The female was reared 
from a nest about four years ago, and the year after 
scratched a hole in the ground, and laid six or seven 
egos, but she had no mate that year. Last winter a 
male Kestrel pursued a small bird so resolutely as to 
dash through a window in one of the cottages here, 
and they brought the bird to me. I put him into the 
aviary with the hen bird, and they lived very happily 
together all the summer, and built a nest or scratched a 
hole in the ground, and she laid five eggs, sat steadily, 
