“’T was gentle when, in trappings gay, Upon its lady’s wrist it stood; Till its hood was raised and it saw its prey, When its eye betrayed the bird of blood.” [Illustration] [Illustration: THE KESTREL, (_Falco tinnunculus_,)] IS the commonest of all the British Hawks, and may be seen in almost all parts of the country hovering over the fields in search of mice and other small animals. His flight is very peculiar. He advances only for a short distance at a time, and then suspends himself in the air by very short but quick movements of his wings. If no prey make its appearance beneath him, he then goes on a little further, and again remains stationary, but the moment a mouse or other small quadruped stirs amongst the grass, his wings close, and he descends with the greatest velocity. The Kestrel will also feed upon small birds and insects. The Kestrel is a handsome little Hawk, from twelve to fifteen inches in length, with a blue beak and yellow cere and feet. Its plumage is reddish brown or fawn colour, elegantly marked with black spots and bars. Its nest is built among rocks, or in the holes and corners of old buildings and church towers, and the female lays four or five eggs, which are reddish white, with brown spots. [Illustration: THE SECRETARY BIRD. (_Serpentarius reptilivorus._)] THIS singular bird, which is a native of Southern Africa, differs from all the other predaceous birds in the great length of its legs, which are so long that some naturalists have placed it among the Wading Birds. It stands between three and four feet high when erect, and is of a bluish ash colour on the back and nearly white beneath; its tail is long, and has the two middle feathers much longer than the others and nearly reaching to the ground; and the back of the head is adorned with a tuft of black feathers, which the bird can raise at pleasure. It is from this tuft that the bird has obtained his name; the Dutch colonists of the Cape of Good Hope fancied they saw some resemblance in it to the pen of a clerk stuck behind his ear, and accordingly called him the Secretary Bird. Clerks and secretaries are no doubt useful personages in their way, and the Secretary Bird, although he cannot take his pen from behind his ear, finds abundance of work to do, although of a kind very different from the peaceful labours of his namesakes. He is the great destroyer of the snakes and other reptiles which swarm in many parts of Southern Africa, and which, but for him, would increase in numbers so as to become a positive nuisance. And here we may call our young readers to admire the wonderful manner in which the structure of a hawk has been modified by the hand of the Creator to suit it for a particular mode of life. As the bird advances to attack a snake his long legs, protected by hard horny scales, elevate his body to a considerable height above the ground, thus giving him an advantageous position, and at the same time