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cliff, and disappear into a burrow, on which the birds all flew away; 

 but a day or two later I again saw four or five kestrels about the 

 same part. I suppose it was the rabbit that cried, as it seemed a 

 distinct sound from the screams of the birds, and I should say he 

 had a very narrow escape. Kestrels seem very pugnacious. Once 

 in the autumn two hen kestrels rushed furiously at one another, 

 and were so firmly grappled together by their talons that 

 they could hardly be separated when shot dead. On another 

 occasion a male Kestrel ate the body of its partner, which 

 had been shot, and hung in a tree ; and a pair of Kestrels 

 in confinement having been left without their supper, the male 

 was killed and eaten by the female before the morning. The way 

 in which the Kestrel, or "Windhover as it is called poises itself in 

 the air before falling like a stone upon its prey, is a familiar sight 

 to us all, the outspread tail and quivering wings making it a 

 graceful object, suspended like Mahomet's coffin between heaven 

 and earth. I like to watch the way in which, when the prey has 

 just escaped in time, the bird converts its fall into a rapid skimming 

 movement over the surface of the ground and then rises and again 

 searches for prey. The sudden change in its progress is very 

 gracefully accomplished. 



The Buzzard I only allude to, to call attention to these fine 

 spicimens. 



Owls form a tolerably distinct suborder of birds, and can usually 

 be recognised without any scientific knowledge, their large heads, 

 short necks, full face, surrounded by a sort of ruff, and the eyes 

 both looking forward are familiar characteristics of their kind. 

 Owls are very interesting from a hterary point of view. They were 

 regarded as birds of ill-omen as much by the inhabitants of Greece 

 and Italy in olden times as they have been in England up to the 

 present day, so also in Morocco and W. Africa, and in many 

 Eastern countries. The Athenians alone seem to have had a regard 

 for these birds, and an owl is found on the reverse side of many of 

 their coins, the bird being sacred to their guardian Deity Athene. 

 It is difficult to account for its being regard d as the embodiment of 

 wisdom, unless from its having been sacred to Minerva, the Goddess 

 of Wisdom. 



The " Owlet's wing " was an ingredient in the witches' cauldron, 

 in "Macbeth" for their " charm of powerful trouble " and with the 

 character assigned to it by the ancients, Shakespeare, no doubt, 

 felt that the introduction of an owl in a di-eadful scene of a tragedy 

 would help to make the subject come home more forcibly to the 

 people who had, from early times, associated its presence 

 with melancholy, misfortune and death. Accordingly we find the 

 unlortunata owl stigmatised as the " obscure," *' ominous," " fear- 



