Moorhens, Kestrels. 73 



species of birds, and they are most certainly bad neighbours 

 for young pheasants and partridges, as they not only consume 

 a good deal of the food intended for game birds, but will now 

 and then capture and devour the birds themselves." 



The common kestrel, or windhover, so well known as a 

 destroyer of field mice and rats, has also been accused of 

 occasionally attacking young pheasants. Mr. J. H. Gurney, 

 of Northrepps Hall, Norwich, writes as follows : — " Mr. 

 Stevenson, in his article on the kestrel in the ' Birds of Norfolk,' 

 remarks : ' That some kestrels carry off young partridges 

 as well as other small birds during the nesting season is too 

 well authenticated as a fact for even their warmest advocates 

 to gainsay.' For many years I have endeavoured to collect 

 rehable information on this point, and I am convinced of the 

 correctness of Mr. Stevenson's opinion above quoted ; but there 

 is this difference between the sparrowhawk and the kestrel 

 in their habits of preying on young partridges and pheasants — 

 viz., that the kestrel only destroj'^s them when very j^oung, 

 and the sparrowhawk continues to attack them long after 

 they have grown too large to be prey for the kestrel. To 

 particularise two instances : Many years ago a very young 

 partridge was brought to me which had been taken out of a 

 kestrel's nest at Easton, in Norfolk ; and a gamekeeper in this 

 parish, who is as trustworthy^ an observer of such matters 

 as any man I know, saw a hen kestrel take up a very young 

 pheasant in its talons and rise with it about eight feet from the 

 ground ; my informant then fired at the depredator with a 

 small pistol, when it dropped its prey, which, though some- 

 what injured, ultimately recovered ; and an instance of a young 

 pheasant found in the nest of a kestrel was recorded in the 

 Field of May 13, 1868." 



Mr. Booth, in his " Eough Notes on British Birds," care- 

 fully investigated the accusations against the kestrel, and 

 maintained that it is one of our most useful birds, and a 

 decided ally to the game preserver, more especially as a 

 destroyer of rats, of which it kills large numbers. He says 



