26 EGYPTIAN BIRDS 
down the land, and, as already stated, the young are 
often to be heard when they cannot be seen, calling 
with their incessant squeaky voice for their devoted 
parents. The parents are to be seen searching for 
food, hovering over the fields in the same way 
that they do at home, for this bird is the familiar 
Windhover (see Plate II.). The quantity of mice 
that it consumes is enormous, and of lizards, 
beetles, and particularly locusts, it also takes toll. 
So that though it does not do the useful work 
that the Kites are doing day by day, it still clears 
the land of what would otherwise be grave 
scourges. 
The Kestrel is one of the birds of which large 
quantities of mummies have been found, and it 
was clearly treated with quite sacred rites, lending 
colour to the views of some that this is the 
original of the Hawk so frequently pictured and 
sculptured. This question is one, however, that as 
doctors disagree upon, it is not for a layman to 
venture judgment; but several of the best pre- 
served specimens of wall-paintings at Deir-el- 
Bahari in their drawing suggest much more the 
shape of a long-legged Sparrow Hawk than the 
compact Kestrel. The colouring of these pictures 
is so different, sometimes one part of a bird will be 
