218 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
the Kestrel seldom takes birds, its prey usually being mice 
During the vole-plague of 1891-1893 the numbers of 
these birds were augmented to an enormous extent, and 
" it is impossible to believe (after making due allowance 
for the largeness of the clutches, and the most unusual 
frequency with which they nested during the breeding 
season) that aU these birds were of local origin. ihe 
amount of good that this species did during this plague 
cannot be over-estimated. In the Report of the Depart- 
mental Committee on the Plague of Field Voles in Scotland 
we find the following: "A preponderance of opinion 
amongst farmers is reported, tracing the cause of the present 
outbreak to the scarcity of owls, kestrels, hawks weasek, 
and other vermin."t At the cessation of this plague the 
Kestrels suffered severely, apparently dying of disease 
incurred through eating the diseased voles.J 
As a destroyer of noxious insects it also proves its 
utility " Mabie Moss " wrote in 1895 : " Some years ago 
Sir George Walker saw a pair of Kestrels playing and 
diving about for hours like Swallows on a patch of grass 
close to Crawfordton Mansion. On going to see what it 
was that the Kestrels were feeding upon. Sir George found 
myriads of flies of a species of daddy-long-legs emergmg 
from the ground, all over which the empty pupa cases of 
these flies, so terribly destructive in the larvae state, were 
to be seen protruding from the surface."§ 
The eggs of the Kestrel are often laid in the old disused 
nest of a Carrion-Crow or Wood-Pigeon, or on a ledge or 
crevice of some rocky crag. 
A pale or white variety of this bird, recorded m 188511 
by William Hastings, has been ascertained to have come 
from Lochmaben. 
* Dumfries Courier and Herald, October 11th, 1892. 
t Report Field Voles Soot. (C. 6943), 1893, p. viii. 
t Trans. D. and G. Nat. Hist. Soc., December 18th, 1903. 
§ Dumfries Courier and Herald, May 23rd, 1895. 
II Trans. D. and G. Nat. Hist. Soc., December 4th, 1885. 
