250 SOME COMMON LAND-BIRDS. 



to which the unfortunate worm was being subjected. The 

 pommelling and nipping having gone on for from one and a 

 half to three and a half minutes, the thrush would next essay 

 to swallow the worm, beginning, almost invariably, at the tail. 

 In the case of a big worm, the process of swallowing was dis- 

 tressingly prolonged by the efforts of the worm to escape, in 

 which it often succeeded so far as to crawl out of the bird's 

 mouth almost as fast as it was drawn in. The fact that the 

 thrush swallowed its worms tail first, gains something in inter- 

 est when the structure of the earthworm is taken into account. 

 As is well known, the earthworm's body consists of from one 

 hundred to two hundred rings or segments. Every segment, 

 except the anterior two or three and the tail, affords insertion 

 to four groups of short bristles, to which muscles are attached 

 and by means of which the worm progresses. Now a x^erson 

 would suppose that the presence of- several hundred little bris- 

 tles, all pointing the wrong way, would interfere with easy and 

 pleasurable deglutition ; and, inasmuch as a worm normally 

 crawls ahead and not back, I expected to see my thrush swal- 

 low worms head first, when it is to be presumed the bristles 

 in question would not retard the process. As a matter of fact, 

 the contrary method was followed." 



This hermit thrush always ate at least half its own weight 

 of raw beef a day, or a much greater amount of worms, which 

 were not so hearty. Careful experiments indicated that it 

 would have eaten its own weight of worms in three or four 

 hours. How hard it would be to feed children if they ate in 

 proportion ! The thrush had a keen sense of taste and would 

 refuse worms that came from a dirty place, " making a great 

 splutter" or " rejecting them with every symptom of nausea 

 and abhorrence, wiping its bill on the nearest object which 

 was, generally, my hand." Though taken captive when very 



