154 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 
The Kestrel very commonly lays its eggs in an old Crow’s nest, making no 
additions to it; however, Seebohm states that an old Raven’s nest from which he 
took five Kestrel’s eggs had been elaborately repaired; the writer once witnessed 
a fight between a pair of Kestrels and a pair of Carrion Crows that was maintained 
for several days for the possession of a nest in a tall hedge-row elm, the victory 
at last fell to the Crows. Ledges of cliffs overhanging the sea provide a favourite 
site, where a slight depression scratched in the earth suffices; so do old ivy-clad 
buildings and quarries; hollow trees are occasionally made use of; a friend of the 
writer’s who put an old cask in a tree had it occupied year after year by a pair 
of Kestrels; and the writer has known of two hen Kestrels being joint tenants 
of the same nest. Kestrels will breed in confinement, but will show the vitiated 
instincts superinduced by their unnatural state by devouring their young. 
The eggs, which are not laid until sometime in May, are from four to seven 
in number, and vary greatly in their markings; the average type has a reddish 
ground, spotted and blotched with brick red; other eggs are handsomely marked 
with blotches of purple-red on a reddish ground, and resemble miniature eggs of 
the Honey-Buzzard; others have a few large blotches of dark red on a white 
ground; others are ochreous-white with numerous minute dark spots, and are not 
to be distinguished from typical eggs of the Hobby; indeed the beautiful varieties 
of the eggs of the Kestrel are among the joys of the oologist; in shape they are 
subovate, varying much in size, and measure from 1°67 to 1°42 inches, by from 
1°36 to 12 inches. Of the nine eggs figured upon plate xii, seven are taken from 
the writer’s cabinet; the pretty variety with the lilac shell markings, No. 333, is 
from an egg in the possession of Mr. Frohawk; the very abnormal round egg, 
No. 337, was found with two others of the usual size in the tower of Leverton 
Church, Lincolnshire, by the Rev. W. Wright Mason. 
The Kestrel is found throughout the whole of the Palearctic Region, migrating 
in the autumn in large flocks into Central Africa, some few going as far south as 
Damaraland, where, during the winter, they feed chiefly upon locusts. 
Gatke says that the Kestrel visits Heligoland in great numbers, and is known 
to the islanders as the Beetle Hawk, arriving in March, April, and May, on its 
northward flight; young birds appear first on the return migration about the 
middle of August, followed by old birds throughout September and October. 
The adult male is bluish grey on the head, lower back, and tail; the tail 
has a broad subterminal band of black, with a white tip; on the head are some 
dark shaft streaks; the rest of the upper parts are pale buffish red, with small 
triangular spots of black; wings blackish-brown, with lighter edges; breast and 
belly pale fawn colour; dark streaks on the former and dark spots on the latter; 
