94 Mr. C. F. M. Swynnerton on 



shape of the Buprestid beetle o£ experiment 568. But the 

 Babbler's methods were once more vindicated in experiment 

 573, when she broke up two Tenebrionid beetles of a species 

 that the Roller tried for a few seconds to crush " through 

 sheer bill-pressure," but, failing, threw away. The Shrike 

 failed, too. 



Finally, the attack on the water-bug (experiment 561) 

 was most interesting, the Babbler's full methods as against 

 hardness being brought into play here as against leatheriness. 

 Its failure was again in good company. The Shrike failed 

 to damage the bug, the Roller " crushed it in every con- 

 ceivable position," and, the insect at once resuming its 

 former shape each time the pressure was relaxed and its 

 claspers seizing everything within reach and jerking it 

 repeatedly from the bird^s bill, " at last flung it away in a 

 rage." The Kingfisher swallowed it, but even his preliminary 

 battering had failed to open a way for the digestive fluids to 

 enter, and the bug was brought up in the next pellet quite 

 undigested. 



The methods of attack I have dealt with include methods 

 of reduction (to an edible state). Some birds commonly 

 forego these preliminaries. A Francolin or Guinea-fowl 

 will swallow the hardest of prey — Brachycerus, for instance, 

 which I have taken from their crops — intact, and leave the 

 muscle of the latter to do the rest. Other birds, as King- 

 fishers and Rollers, quite roughly break up the chitin by 

 battering against a branch or crushing with the bill and then 

 swallow whole. Most Picarians, in my experience, swallow 

 whole, as do Swallows and a few other Passerines. Many 

 Passerines, on the other hand (and some Picarians), prepare 

 their food more thoroughly, " pulping " the parts eaten, and 

 going to some trouble to remove superfluous chitinous parts 

 that may be an obstacle to swallowing. Shrikes of the genus 

 Lanius, Paradise Flycatchers, Weavers, and Whydahs, and 

 numerous other birds hold the insect firmly in one foot, the 

 tarsus resting on the branch, and tear or lever off the 

 undesired parts (which commonly include the wings of 

 butterflies) with the point of the bill. My Wood-Hoopoes 



