FALCOXID.E. 1G9 



the Kestrel had obtained his full powers of flight he would fly across our 

 meadow from a tall elm directly we appeared iu the morning, settling on our 

 shoulder, and always had a lot to scream about. Whenever he saw the 

 plants in the conservatory being watered he would fly in at one of the 

 windows, and alighting on the pavement, aud fluttering his wings, would 

 beg to be drenched, and delighted in the shower-bath given him. Some- 

 times a strange Kesfrel visited our tame bird, and the two would fly off 

 together ; but our pet always returned. 



Mr. Gatcombe has recorded the nesting of a pair of Kestrels which were 

 ke])t in a very small cage at Plymouth, only 4 ft. long and 4 ft. high by 

 2 ft. broad ; Ave young ones were duly hatched, not all at once, but every 

 alternate day ; and as each new chick appeared, the hen Kestrel imme- 

 diately killed and devoured the one hatched before it, until the whole brood 

 was destroyed. 



The nest of the Kestrel is placed in a tree, an old Crow's nest being often 

 occupied ; the crannies on the clifls offer a favourite site ; ruins and lime- 

 kilns are not unfrequently selected as breeding-places; and Mr. James 

 Turner, of Staplegrove, Taunton, told us of a pair of Kestrels which nested 

 for several years in an old barrel which he had placed in an elm for Jack- 

 daws to build in: the barrel was divided into two partitions ; one of them 

 was tenanted by the Kestrels, and the other by a pair of Jackdaws. 



In [September 1871 a vessel was coming up the English Channel, and 

 the crew saw a female Kestrel chasing a young Barn-Owl for several miles 

 out at sea. At length, becoming tired, both bi)'ds alighted on the vessel 

 and were captured. They were afterwards brought to a bird-stufi'er in 

 Exeter, by whom they were shown to us. 



Ohs. — The Lesser Kestrel {Faico cenchris, Nauni.), a much smaller bird tlinn our 

 Kestrel, and a native of the extreme soutli of Europe, has probably been once obtained 

 in Cornwall, as Mr. E. H. Rodd examined a remarkably small t'eniale Kestrel, which 

 was shot in the western part of his county, aud .-eiit a description of it at the lime to 

 the 'ZoiiLigist' (187<), ]). 5178) ; and only this last winter (ISUU) two examples hare 

 been obtained in Ireland, and another (;ccurred oa the kjeilly Isles in March of this 

 present year (1801). 



Osprey. Pandion lialia'etus (Linn.). 



A casual visitor, formerly of occasional occurrence in the estuaries of 

 the larger rivers of the county, at all seasons of the year, but ])rincipally 

 in spring and autumn. l*olwhele says that about forty years before ho 

 wrote (1707) a single ])air of Ospreys bred on a pinnacle of the cliff's at 

 Ijeer every year, arriving in April aud leaving in August. The ()s]ircy 

 was called in tliai nciglilHMirhood a " Herriot," and llie rocl; tliis jiair 

 built on was known as " llerriot Hill." He also speaks (tf tliis hiid as 

 breeding on the cliff's of North Devon (Hist. Devon, vol. i. chap. '>). 

 ]x'ss than fffty years ago ()s])rcys wore still nesting, or atlempling to 

 nest, in several jjlaces in the S.W. counties, l)ut were sliot down, sliarinij 

 in the common i'ate ruthlessly iipportioned to many of our most inl creating 

 birds. Mr. W. D. Crotch iufonued Mr. A. C More, who drew up a mo.st 



