ting intently on them. The eggs were of large size, and as vivid in colouring as those of wild individuals. This bird had not the company of any other kestrel during its captivity. Being purchased in the market, its age is not known.* Although the kestrel is the most common of the Falconida in Ireland, I have not met with it so abundantly anywhere in this island, as it is said by Sir William Jardine and Mr. Waterton to be in Scotland and England. The former author observes :"We know several glens where, within a quarter of a mile, there may in April and May be found from ten to twelve eyries; and, in one situation, eight or nine can be perceived at once."+ Mr. Waterton remarks:-"Last summer [1835] I visited twentyfour nests in my park, all with the wind-hover's eggs in them."+ In an extent of glen such as that noticed, we should not, in the north of Ireland, find more than one or two nests. The reason of the species being less numerous in this island than in Great Britain, may perhaps in some degree be accounted for, by the circumstance, that there are comparatively few of the smaller Mammalia on which the kestrel chiefly preys. Of the Arvicola, or short-tailed mice, for instance, of which four species are found in Great Britain, none have yet been detected in Ireland; and of the Sorices, or shrew-mice, we have as yet in Ireland met with but two, (or one-half of the British species,) one only of which is common. Willoughby says of the kestrel :-"In the stomach we found beetles and fur of mice;" Mr. Waterton also writes to the same effect, adding that it lives "almost entirely on mice." Mr. Hepburn, an attentive observer and a contributor of much interesting matter to Macgillivray's History of British Birds, remarks, that "birds constitute no part of its food," vol. iii. p. 335. These gentlemen are doubtless correct with regard to the food of the kestrel, in the districts from which they have written ;---but their * Mr. Robert Warren, junr. + Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 140. observations will not apply to those in Scotland, whence Mr. Macgillivray had specimens, as he informs us they contained the remains of birds of various species, though mice are considered by him to be the chief food of this hawk (p. 331). Nor will the observations quoted apply to Ireland, where, judging from the stomachs that I have examined, and other means of knowledge, mice constitute but a small portion of the kestrel's food; still, for what the species does kill of these vermin, its life should be preserved, and not sacrificed, as it is by every gamekeeper.* Of four birds examined by me in 1838, as to their food; the first contained the remains of a young hare or rabbit; the second (killed in the middle of December), insects only, consisting of three dor-beetles of a small species (Geotrupes vernalis ?) and the elytra of a Carabus, or common "clock;"—the third was filled with the remains of a bird; the fourth (in April) wholly with beetles (Coleoptera), and the larvæ of insects. Mr. J. R. Garrett states that to his house near Belfast, the gable of which being covered with ivy was consequently the resort of many sparrows, a kestrel came almost daily at sunset, when these birds had collected together to roost, and always captured one of them, after which exploit the locality was not revisited on that day.† A kestrel, observed by the same gentleman hovering in summer above a mountain tarn, was shot by him, and "in its stomach * The keeper at Hillsborough Park (co. Down) remarked, when robbing a nest of five young, in the last week of May, 1848, then twelve days out, that it contained a couple of mice. The down with which the young are covered is white, but when viewed en masse, of a light sandy-coloured tinge; their irides are bluish-black. These birds were produced in the old nest of a magpie. This is quite a counterpart to the sparrow-hawk described by Mr. Waterton (under Kestrel), as frequently bearing off one of the inmates of the starling tower at Walton Hall. Dr. Burkitt of Waterford, remarks, in a letter to me, that "the boldness of some hawks, when in pursuit of prey, is truly astonishing. I recollect one evening in the summer of 1835, being struck by the appearance of a sparrow which alighted in a myrtle within two yards of me, and hopped backwards and forwards within a space of about eight or ten inches, evidently in a state of extreme terror. For the few moments that it continued thus, my attention was exclusively attracted by its most peculiar motions, but almost at the same instant I felt as if something brushed my head (my hat being off at the time), and before I could turn to ascertain the cause, a female kestrel dashed at the sparrow and bore it off." This, as well as what is mentioned above, seems rather the act of a sparrow-hawk than a were found shrimp-like creatures, quite transparent;"—probably the larvæ of dragon-flies (Libellulæ), which it was presumed could only be obtained at, or near, the surface of the water. It was remarked of a tame kestrel kept by him, that when birds or mice were given to it, the eyes were always picked out at the commencement of the repast. One in the possession of my correspondent in Wexford, always refused thrushes, but accepted larks, chaffinches, and field-mice. Once, when this bird was set at liberty, it flew into a high tree containing numbers of goldfinches and green-linnets, all of which kept their places regardless of its presence. From this circumstance, it may perhaps be fairly inferred that the kestrels of that neighbourhood are not much given to preying upon small birds. I have remarked the kestrel abroad at a very early hour in the winter morning; and Mr. Poole notes his having "observed one on the morning of the 11th of November, examining a stubble field before 7 o'clock, when there seemed little enough of light for an owl to plunder by." kestrel, but both my informants are good ornithologists, and know the difference between the species well. The following occurrence, in which the kestrel is made the hero, is also less in unison with the general character of this species than with that of its congener. In November, 1845, as Mr. J. O'Neil Higginson was in a coach proceeding from Belfast to Antrim, a skylark pursued by a kestrel flew into the coach (the window being open) when near Templepatrick, and alighted at his back. Feeling confident that it had taken refuge from some bird of prey, he gently laid hold of, and carried the lark for some distance, until certain that it would be beyond the reach of its pursuer, when it was given liberty. A friend of Mr. Higginson's travelling outside the coach, observed the hawk to sweep close past the vehicle, but did not perceive the lark. * Dr. Wilde, when in the desert, between the pyramids of Gaza and Dashoor, at the end of January, remarks:-" I was not a little surprised at the good feeling and familiarity that seemed to exist between them [swallows] and numbers of kestrelst that flew round with the most graceful motion, now skimming in rapid flight along the sands, and anon balanced on extended wing for minutes together, ere they pounced upon their quarry. Their prey was not birds, but a large species of grass or sand-hopper, with remarkably brilliant crimson legs. The wings and back of this insect were the exact colour of the sand, so that when the animal lay quiet on the ground, not even the eye of a hawk could distinguish it. The bird, however, marked with unerring accuracy the spot whereon it alighted, and remained hovering over it as described, till the insect again took flight, when its red legs, and the under part of the body, rendering it very conspicuous, he pounced upon it while on the wing. But neither did this hawk appear to mind the smaller birds, nor did they, as if aware of their security, seem to pay the least attention to him." Narrative of a voyage to Madeira, the Mediterranean, &c., including a visit to Egypt, &c., 2nd edit. p. 252. † Possibly Falco tinnunculoides. Mr. Macgillivray observes, that the kestrel never hovers in pursuit of prey "at a greater distance from the ground than forty feet;" but, in the north of Ireland, it is commonly, when so occupied, at double or treble that height in the air. Its elevation above the ground is probably proportioned according to the prey sought for; small birds, we may presume, being seen from a much greater height than mice. The kestrel has been so far trained by Mr. Wm. Sinclaire, as, when given its liberty, to attend and soar above him like the peregrine falcon, and fly at small birds let off from the hand. One of these hawks, kept by this gentleman in the town of Belfast, had its freedom, and went every evening to roost in an extensive plantation in the country, about a mile distant, in flying to and from which it was first recognised by the sound of the bells attached to its legs. This bird returned regularly to its town domicile at an early hour in the morning. Mr. Rd. Langtry has often seen a wild kestrel rise from the enclosure in which his eagles, &c., were kept, but never having observed it to carry away anything, knew not whether food or curiosity (which we frequently see displayed by birds,) may have been the cause of its visit. Often as I have seen swallows follow in the train of birds of prey, I never, but in the following instance, saw one of them become the pursued. On September the 22nd, 1832, when walking with a friend in the garden at Wolf-hill, near Belfast, a male kestrel, in close pursuit of a swallow (Hirundo rustica), appeared in sight over the hedge-row, and with extreme ferocity continued the chase, losing not the least way by the swallow's turnings, but keeping within about a foot of it all the time. At one moment they passed within five or six yards of our heads. It is idle to conjecture how long the pursuit may have lasted before we witnessed it, but immediately on the kestrel's giving up the chase, the swallow, nothing daunted, became again, accompanied by many of its species, its pursuer, and so continued until they all disappeared. The kestrel was probably forced to this chase by the particular annoyance of the swallows, as they and the martins (Hirundo urbica) had been more numerous on that day at Wolf-hill, than at any time during the season. Notwithstanding the numbers of these birds bred at Walton Hall, we are told that "during the winter there is scarcely a wind-hover to be found" there. Such, also, is said to be the case in the eastern parts of Mid Lothian ;* but Mr. Macgillivray remarks, that in the districts bordering the Frith of Forth, they are as numerous, perhaps even more so, in winter than in summer, adding, that probably, "like the merlin, this species merely migrates from the interior to the coast." In the north of Ireland generally, kestrels seem to be quite as numerous in winter as in summer, in their usual haunts. I have observed this species to be not uncommon in Switzerland and Italy. The first which was seen, on our proceeding in H.M.S. Beacon from Malta to the Morea, at the end of April, 1841, was a single individual, which flew close past the vessel when sixty miles west of the Morea, and forty-five distant from Zante, the nearest land. We saw the kestrel about Navarino at the period just mentioned, and in the month of June met with it at the cliffs of an islet north-east of Port Naussa, in Paros, where it was believed to have an eyrie. When Dr. J. L. Drummond was, many years ago, in the Renown (74 gun ship), off Toulon, some hundreds of male kestrels, on their way from the south, alighted, quite exhausted, on the rigging, and so many were caught by the sailors, that for some time there was hardly a berth without its kestrel. The weather was moderate at the time. My friend kept one of them alive for several weeks by feeding it on salt meat, steeped for some time in fresh water. But none of the birds lived long, in consequence of no fresh food being obtainable for them. THE LITTLE KESTREL, Falco tinnunculoides.—In a review which appeared in the Magazine of Zoology and Botany (vol. ii. p. 352), of the French Scientific Expedition to the Morea, the writer states that he had long been aware of this bird being common in Greece; that it * Mr. Hepburn in Macg. Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 334. |