NANKEEN KESTEEL. 
Merryfield at Kallioota. Latest date about middle of August by Mr. W. 
Gilbert, near Morgan.’’ 
Captain S. A. White has informed me : “ The Kestrel is to be seen on 
the treeless plains, in the ranges, amongst the timber, on the seashore, 
swamps, in fact almost in every situation. I have seen the bird in the City 
of Adelaide. They are most useful to mankind for they destroy a wonderful 
lot of mice, grasshoppers and other vermin, and place no toll upon the white 
man’s goods for the ser^^^ices rendered. It is a very familiar sight to see the 
lovely little birds hovering over a field of corn or haystack or even a stable- 
yard and pouncing down and seizing a mouse with great rapidity ; their 
peculiar chatting call is a common one in our country. They lay in a hollow 
bough, placing the eggs on the bare wood : the number is generally four and 
their coloration varies in a most marked degree ; some eggs are peppered 
over with very fine spots of rusty-brown and others with big blotches of 
dark red.” 
Mr. Tom Carter’s notes read : “ The Kestrel was the next commonest 
hawk to the Brown Hawk in the Mid-west. They laid their eggs, in number 
from three to five, in hollow spouts of gum trees, or on ledges of cliffs, both 
inland and on the coast. They also often laid in the broken tops of the large 
white anthills that were so plentiful about Point Cloates. I have noted 
eggs on dates between August 10th and November 1st in various years. 
On November 2nd, 1898, I observed a pair at Broome Hill, where they are 
rather scarce, that had a nest in a large dead tree. In September, 1911, when 
I was on the Gascoyne Eiver, numbers of Kestrels were dying in the district, 
and several squatters told me they had noticed the fact over a large area of 
country there.” 
A number of interesting notes are included by North in the Austr. Mus. 
Spec. Cat., No. 1, Vol. III., and I quote therefrom the following accounts. 
Thus Dr. Macgillivray wrote : 
“ Cerchneis cenchroides is plentifully distributed throughout the disjirict, 
finding its living on the open plains, whether covered with saltbush, grass 
or stunted scrub, poised in the air a minute, then dropping down to investigate 
whatever has attracted its attention, or to capture something of food value, 
such as grasshoppers, crickets, and other insects, lizards, and small snakes, 
mammals such as mice, and the young of ground breeding birds.” Mr. K. H. 
Bennett, from Mossgiel, New South Wales, observed : “ Is an extremely 
common species, being met with everywhere in the district. Its powers of 
flight are considerable, but like Hieracidea orientalis is seldom, if ever, used in 
the capture of its prey. It is a very active bird, and may frequently be 
observed poised on outstretched and quickly vibrating wings, while it 
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