PREDATORS COMPETE
It is well known that every few acres of ground support so many seed-eaters, so many insectivorous birds and so many predators, according to the nature of the country. Battles that take place are sometimes for the survival of the species as well as of the individual. A particular stretch of mountainside I have observed for a long time as the haunt of kestrels, but lately, perhaps because of the great in- crease in the number of voles, it has been visited by a buzzard that swings aloft as though moored like a boy's kite. Sometimes it descends to feed, and I was pleased to see It there, for they were said to be retreating in this part of the world. The other day, however, I saw that the buzzard had an attendant, a kestrel that harried its every movement in some- thing like the way that jackdaws harry kestrels when they come too near the nesting site. Is a kestrel capable of holding its own against a buzzard? it has speed and a certain energy that the buzzard seems to lack, and the kestrel in this case kept after the intruder like a terrier until the bigger bird was forced over the hill. I wondered how many times this had happened already and if either would be able to enjoy the hunting undisturbed.
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