KESTRELS AND PHEASANTS.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12490, 17 March 1909, Page 1

KESTRELS AND PHEASANTS.

I As I have from time to time seen gamekeepers blamed for shooting a : kestrel, I should like to give my opin- ! ion in regard to this bird, writes a gamekeeper to "The Scotsman." My ' first experience with it was some j'ears I ago in East Lothian, when I was rearj ing severa Ihundreds of young pheasants. Seventy chicks were at that time i carried off 'by kestrels before one of the culprits was shot. They are much more cunning than sparrow-hawks, which come dashing in with the rapidity o flightuing, frequently regardless of the presence of the keeper, gun in hand. The kestrel, however, is more wary. He will- settle on- a tree until he sees the keeper ,at a distance, when he will pounce on a chick and carry it off, the warning cry of tho foster-mother causing the keper to look round to observe the chick being carried off in the tallons of the hawk. This year I lost fifty young pheasants by kestrels before the latter were secured. I kept the under-keeper con-_ stantly parading the. field among the" coops, and he frequently fired long shots at the. marauders, but without success. Keeping watch myself, with I the gun at full cock, I observed a kestrel disappearing, wrfch a chicle. I fired and the bird evidently got a fright; as it dropped the young pheasant ,which appeared to be little the worse. Imagine my surprise however, on looking round, to see the kestrel, flying off with another chick. Observing that I was occupied, the bird flew behind me, and was successful in securing its quarry. Eventually two kestrels fell to our guns.