Bird Life Through the Camera. 
59 
BRITISH BIRDS. 
Bird Life Through the Camera. 
THE KESTREL HAWK. 
{Falco iinnwi cuius, Linnaeus) . 
By H. WiLLFORD. 
The Kestrel Hawk is to be found ranging over our 
entire islands, and is comparatively well known by most oT 
us; few there are who have not at some time or .other 
observed its wonderful evolutions in mid air, at one moment- 
apparently suspended motionless, at the next travelling at a 
great speed, to again soar high into the heavens, constantly on 
the look out for food. 
During the summer of 1911 I had under almost con- 
stant observation for five days, a nest of five young Kestrels, 
and their parents. 
Having discovered the nest, which was the deserted 
homo of a Magpie; at the top of a large ash tree in the 
centre of a disused chalk pit, I was desirous of obtaining 
photographs of the old birds feeding their offspring, bat how 
to go about it was a fair conundrum. 
It was impossible to climb to the nest itself for this was 
on quite a slender branch, that would not bear any heavy 
weight; so observation was kept from some bushes at the top 
of the pit, on the old birds until it was deemed that the 
young were about three weeks old, then at early dusk one 
summei evening, my assistant and I climbed the tree as high 
as possible, fastening a piece of rope to the branch con- 
taining the nest and sucuring this to another bough. We then 
sawed the first branch off the tree, letting it come down 
to within a few feet of the ground head first, but it naturafly 
was foreseen, that the nest being thickly domed, it was im- 
possiblei for the young to fall out and thereby come to harm. 
From below, the rope was removed and fastened higher 
up so that the branch and nest could be hauled up, appearing 
in much the same place it was in before, and here it was 
left till the next morning, when on visiting it we found that 
the young had been fed and the old birds in no way alarmed. 
The next four or five days the nest was visited each 
