﻿1 4 Birds 



The nest is a slight depression in the ground, in which the two 

 eggs are laid ; they are pale clay-colour, streaked, scrolled, and 

 spotted with ash-grey and dark brown. 



In its habits the Stone-Curlew is chiefly nocturnal, its food 

 consisting of, insects, snails, slugs and worms. It also feeds on 

 field mice, frogs and lizards. At night, when large numbers of 

 injurious creatures are on the move, such as earwigs, beetles and 

 slugs, these form its chief diet. This bird consumes its food in 

 great quantities, which renders it a most beneficial bird to -the 

 agriculturist. 



The plumage of the upper parts is a pale sandy-drab, with a 

 dark central streak down each feather, the wing-coverts with 

 whitish tips forming a bar across the wing ; below the eye is a 

 broad white stripe, bordered above by a blackish stripe and below 

 by a brown one ; throat white ; neck and breast buff streaked with 

 dark brown ; belly white ; under tail-coverts sandy ; bill, apical 

 half black, rest lemon -yellow ; irides golden ; legs and feet pale 

 yellow ; claws black. The sexes are similar. 



KESTEEL. (PL V.) 

 Cerchneis tinnunculus . 



The Kestrel — also commonly called the Wind-hover, from its 

 habit of hovering almost motionless in the air, head to the wind — 

 is the most plentiful of the British birds of prey, being commonly 

 met with throughout the United Kingdom. During autumn a 

 migration takes place from the northern parts of Britain, and 

 numbers arrive in England from abroad. 



Insects form the chief food of the Kestrel, especially beetles, 

 including the destructive cockchafer, daddy-long-legs (Tipula), and 

 grasshoppers ; and it is one of the few birds which regularly catch 

 and devour butterflies. Mice, voles and small birds, as well as 

 lizards, frogs, and earthworms, are all readily eaten, mice and voles 

 forming a large proportion of its diet. It hunts for its prey whilst 

 hovering, and drops down upon its espied victim. When the 

 Kestrel has a hungry brood to cater for, it does not hesitate to 

 snatch up both pheasant and partridge chicks when an opportunity 

 serves ; but this is the limit of harm caused by this most useful bird, 

 which should always be protected in the interests of agriculture. 



