NOTES AND QUERIES. 435 



to realize its position. It took but some moments to grasp the 

 situation, when it determined to make back to the pine-trees ; this, 

 however, I prevented by severely shaking the birch-trees, but do as I 

 would the Squirrel would not be forced to the solitary tree, and when 

 I bent down to pick up a piece of peat to throw, the effect of which, 

 I thought, would force it into the isolated position, it took advantage 

 of this psychological moment to return to the clump of pine-trees 

 from which it had been driven. — E. P. Butterfield (Wilsden). 



P.S. — Correction. — On page 396 (ante), for tyioort flowers read 

 figwort flowers. This error occurs fourteen lines from bottom of 

 page. — E. P. B. 



Yawning of Rodents. — I have a White Eat (Mus rattus) which I 

 have often observed yawning. — Elizabeth Russell (16, Beaufort 

 Gardens, S.W.). 



A VES. 



Kestrel and Starlings. — Although the following circumstance 

 may have no real connection with Mr. Butterfield's experience (ante, 

 p. 392), it has perhaps some interest of its own. On Oct. 19th of 

 last year, near Havering, in Essex, I watched an adult male Kestrel 

 harassing a flock of between two and three hundred Starlings. The 

 latter birds were on the wing, and packed into an extraordinarily 

 dense mass ; they manoeuvred in perfect silence, and appeared per- 

 fectly self-possessed and free from panic. The hawk was flying 

 above and slightly behind the flock, and whenever a Starling became 

 separated by a foot or so from its companions he made a vicious 

 plunge at the isolated bird. This happened several times, and in 

 each case the threatened Starling uttered a short note of alarm and 

 turned into the ranks of the main body, while the hawk took up its 

 former position. The flock drifted in an aimless course across the 

 fields, accompanied by the vigilant and determined enemy, until each 

 became invisible against the dark background of a distant wood. In 

 less than a minute the Starlings returned, settled amongst a herd of 

 cattle, and commenced to feed as though nothing out of the ordinary 

 had occurred. I never saw the Kestrel again, and did not learn that 

 any of its attempts had succeeded. In districts where the smaller 

 Mammalia are scarce, and where the absence or scarcity of trees or 

 bushes favours the operations of hawks, such birds as Redwings and 

 Thrushes form the staple food of the Kestrel, and I am inclined to 

 believe that such large birds as Mistle-Thrushes or Fieldfares are taken, 

 for I have often found the feathers of the latter birds at times and in 



