16 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
I fired, and he dropped his prey: I went up, and 
found it to be the remains of a half-grown rat. It 
also eats various insects, as the remains of Coleo- 
pterous insects, their larve, and earth-worms have 
been found in its stomach; and Mr. Selby says he 
has seen one of these birds engaged in hawking after 
cockchaffers late in the evening: watching him with 
a glass, he saw him dart through a swarm of these 
insects, seize one in each claw, and eat them while 
flying. 
The Kestrel seems to select a variety of places for 
a nest, such as high rocks, towers and old ruins: it 
also builds in trees, on these occasions taking pos- 
session of the nest of a Crow or Magpie; but it is 
*not always successful in gaining possession of the 
nest, for I remember when I was a boy seeing a 
oreat fight for a nest between a pair of Kestrels and 
a pair of Magpies, and the Magpies retained their 
possession. 
The plumage of the male Kestrel differs consider- 
ably from the female. The following description of 
the male is taken from a specimen in my collection ; 
that of the female from the tame bird before men- 
tioned :—Beak blue; eere yellow; irides hazel; fore 
part of the forehead and the throat light buff; head 
and neck bluish grey, the centre of each feather nar- 
rowly streaked with dusky; back, scapulars, wing- 
eoverts, secondaries and tertials brick-dust red, a 
small triangular spot of dusky near the tip of each 
