86 WILD LIFE IN THE TREE TOPS 



is a poacher of the worst possible type, who troubles not about beetles, or mice, 

 when the young pheasants are about ; and whose proper place is among the 

 stoats, hedgehogs, and jays on the ' scrag-pole.' 



It is a mistake to suppose that the Kestrel feeds exclusively upon any of 

 these dehcacies. One has to consider that some of them are not available 

 at all times of the year ; and that the Kestrel is harder pressed for food at 

 some seasons than at others. 



Actually, it feeds more or less upon them all, and though I have often argued 

 with gamekeepers to try to persuade them not to shoot the Kestrel, I know 

 within my heart that the Uttle hawk does occasionally take yoimg pheasants 

 — when an easy chance presents itself — just as he does occasionally feed on 

 dead rabbit, or earthworms. 



There can be no doubt, however, that the number of game birds destroyed 

 under natural conditions, by Kestrels, is extremely small, and quite insignifi- 

 cant when compared with the vast quantities of beetles, mice, etc., that the 

 bird consumes. For I am certain that, if young pheasants were reared in the 

 wild state, and under the care of a protecting mother, there would be practically 

 no danger of any of them falling a victim to a Kestrel — for precisely the same 

 reason as in the case of the Little Owl. 



And the argument that applies to the Little Owl applies equally to the 

 Kestrel. There are more, and stronger, partridges this year than there have 

 been for many seasons ; there are also — perhaps as the result of the war — 

 more Kestrels. 



I have in mind a particular district where, owing to the fact that the 

 owner of the place is a keen ornithologist. Kestrels are not interfered with. 

 During the past summer I chanced to find no less than five Kestrel families in 

 a quite small area. All of them got safely away, and yet the number of 

 partridges in the vicinity to-day is really prodigious, and on September 17 

 of this year twelve guns killed no less than eighty-three brace. 



Still, in spite of sustained arguments, the war against the hawk tribe is 

 carried sternly on. Many Kestrels are shot annually in the breeding season, 

 for there is nothing easier than to creep to the foot of the tree where the Kestrel 

 has her home, and have a couple of barrels at her as she goes away. And after 

 all, if a hit is not scored, it does not matter much, for the httle hawk is so solici- 

 tous for her eggs or young that she is certain to return to them pretty soon, 

 and then one barrel ought to do the business if she should pitch on to a bare 

 branch with no intervening leaves. 



I really think that a number of gamekeepers class Merlins, Kestrels, 

 and Sparrow Hawks under the heading of ' Hawks,' and do not trouble to 

 differentiate — even if able to do so — between them. 



The Kestrel — ^hke the Hobby and the Merlin — does not build a home for 

 itself, but either lays its eggs in a hollow, or appropriates the nest of some 



