16 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



I fired, and lie 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 larvae, 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 

 great 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 ; cere 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- 

 coverts, secondaries and tertials brick- dust red, a 

 small triangular spot of dusky near the tip of each 



