The American Kestrel 



some elevated perch for quiet consumption. When the wind is blowing 

 strongly, the Hawk no longer nutters at its critical stops but only balances 

 upon the wind, so nicely, indeed, that its wings are almost motionless. 



It is this custom which has earned for his European brothers such 

 picturesque names as Windhover and Standgale. 



One must envy the marvelous eyesight which enables a flying bird 

 to detect such humble quarry as a cricket from a height of fifty or eighty 

 feet. Yet the bird, like the modern air-man, is made to realize that 

 appearances are sometimes deceptive. At Pizmo I saw a Sparrow Hawk 

 launch from a telephone wire, seize a brown object from the ground, and 

 rise with unwonted ease. The bird himself realized that there was some- 

 thing wrong, and when he discovered that he held a dried "horse bun" 

 in his talons, he dropped it in disgust. The humble counterfeit had 

 probably been stirred by the wind to a life-like activity. 



Always graceful, the Sparrow Hawk is seen to best advantage during 

 the courting season, when the male reaffirms his fondness for his life-long 

 mate by circling about her as she sits upon the tree-top; or he measures 

 the height of his devotion by ascending to the clouds before her, and 

 dashing himself at her feet again with shrill cries of Killy, kitty, kitty. To 

 hear the snarling clamor of the birds, one would think that they were not 



Taken in Riverside County 

 Photo by the Author 



•BRINGING IN THE BACON' 



THE STUB YIELDED A HANDSOME SET. 

 N/S, OF THE KESTREL 



l639 



