. The British bird book . H AWKS,among as a class, are always includedour feathered enemies, owing totheir fondness for preying upon those creatures whichare bracketed together under the title of game. TheKestrel, however, is an exception. On rare occasionsit may carry off a young partridge; but by far thegreater proportion of its diet consists of field-mice andvoles, which it destroys ia enormous numbers, one nat-uralist going so far as to say that its average bag in I. the course of a year cannot fall very farshort of ten thousand. To these it addsa large quantity of cockchafers and thebigge
. The British bird book . H AWKS,among as a class, are always includedour feathered enemies, owing totheir fondness for preying upon those creatures whichare bracketed together under the title of game. TheKestrel, however, is an exception. On rare occasionsit may carry off a young partridge; but by far thegreater proportion of its diet consists of field-mice andvoles, which it destroys ia enormous numbers, one nat-uralist going so far as to say that its average bag in I. the course of a year cannot fall very farshort of ten thousand. To these it addsa large quantity of cockchafers and thebigger caterpillars, some of which, at least, are highly in-jurious ; so that the value of its services to the agriculturistcan hardly be over-estimated. Even from a distance this bird can be easily recognised, owing to its curious habit of hovering in mid-air—^always with its head to the wind—^as though it were poised on invisible wires. For a few moments it remains absolutely motionless, save for the rapid vibration of its wings. Hence its alternative title of windhover. It then shifts its position by a few yards and hovers • as before, intently scanning every inch of the ground beneath it for any movement of the grass which may betoken the presence \ of a mouse. In this way it will search the entire surface of a large field and few indeedare the small rodents which escape the keen-ness of its telescopic vision. Kestrels are to a certain extent migratory. Exce
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1921
