Frequent in the British Islands.
The food of the kestrel appears to consist mainly of mice, but frogs, earthworms, grasshoppers, cockchafers, and other beetles are also taken. Kestrels will also eat dead animals, as is proved by the fact that they are not seldom found dead from eating poisoned rats laid out for magpies. One instance is on record where a kestrel was taken with its claws entangled in the fur of a stoat, which fiercely defended itself. It is an easy matter, for those who will take the trouble, to find out what is the staple diet of the kestrel; for if the nest and its neighbourhood be searched, numerous small rounded pellets of the size of a chestnut will be found, which, when broken up, will prove to be composed of the hard and indigestible parts of what has been swallowed. The majority of such pellets are made up of the fur and bones of mice.
Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.] [Regent's Park.
MARTIAL HAWK-EAGLE.
The Hawk-eagles show a marked preference for woody districts.
The little American "Sparrow-hawk," which, as we have already pointed out, is really a species of kestrel, appears to be almost exclusively insectivorous during the summer months, preying mainly upon grasshoppers. An American ornithologist, Mr. Henshaw, writing on the subject, remarks that during a scourge of grasshoppers the sparrow-hawks assembled in hundreds; and although on this occasion, owing to the vast myriads in which these insects had collected, the birds could make no visible impression, yet they must have done an immense amount of good. Ornithologists from all parts of the United States unanimously agree that grasshoppers form the staple diet of this hawk, though mice and gophers are also largely eaten, and especially during the winter months, when insect food is scarce.
By permission of Percy Leigh Pemberton, Esq.
PEREGRINE FALCON.