102 BIRDS OF THE COUNTRYSIDE 



The kestrel (one bird) may or may not stay with 

 us during the winter — it depends on the weather — 

 but in the autumn he is roaming about within half 

 a mile of my house two or three days in every week. 

 Everybody bullies and persecutes him, from the pied- 

 wagtail to the black-headed gull (except, of course, the 

 dunnock, who minds his own affairs), and he can 

 rarely hover in peace, but a gull drives him off his 

 pitch or a wagtail puts him to flight, returning when 

 his victim has disappeared, shrilling with self-applause 

 and intoxicated with triumph. Sometimes he hovers 

 right over the buses passing along the river to and fro 

 beneath him, possibly for a respite. He got quite used 

 to me, and often allowed me to come within thirty yards 

 of him and admire his beautiful striated plumage, when 

 perched on the handle of a plough or on a manure heap, 

 or preening himself on one of the white posts on the 

 recreation ground, or on the transverse bar of the goal- 

 posts with that proud, statuesque air all the raptors, 

 except the buzzards, have. Or he would be fljong 

 leisurely on pointed wings and oaring his slender shafted 

 body a few inches from the ground, or suspended in air 

 with pulsing wing-beats. To other birds he never pays 

 the smallest attention, except to give dignified place 

 to them, though it is hard even for him to look the 

 fine bird he is with a feather-headed wagtail screeching 

 at his heels. It is always a puzzle to me to under- 

 stand what the kestrel expects to find on a bare 

 patch of ground his eyes peer down upon with such 

 intentness.^ Would not any sensible mouse remain in 

 hiding with this deadly slayer of his tribe hanging 

 over him like Damocles' sword ? Yet there he is, as 

 absorbed in his researches as St. Jerome in his study 

 — ^like a newly released soul taking its long, sad, 

 farewell gaze at the seductively wicked world before 

 leaving it for the arduous virtues of a better one. 

 In February 1920 our kestrel disappeared, and at the 

 end of the month returned with a mate, while on 

 July 5th a young bird flew past me and alighted on a 



1 He probably feeds on grubs, beetles, cockchafers, earthworms, 

 etc., as well as rodents. 



