8 Beal, Food of European Birds. [^^"J^ 



anterior two or three and the last, affords insertion to four groups 

 of short bristles, to which muscles are attached, and by means of 

 which the worm progresses. The bristles may be made to point 

 in either direction, according as the worm wishes to advance or 

 retreat. When pointed toward the tail, they hold the worm as it 

 crawls ahead ; when directed ahead, they give foothold for 

 retrograde movement. 



Now a person would suppose that the presence of several 

 hundred little bristles, all pointing the ' wrong way,' would inter- 

 fere with easy and pleasurable deglutition; and inasmuch as a 

 worm, normally, crawls ahead, and not back, I expected to see my 

 Thrush swallow 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, as noted above, was followed. Once in 

 a while, a small worm was seized by the middle and doubled, or 

 taken by the head ; but careful observation, extending over several 

 days, brought out so few instances of this kind that I am con- 

 vinced it was a rule with the bird to swallow earthworms tail first. 

 The fact that the worm often made some progress in its attempt 

 to escape from the bird's mouth would indicate that the bristles 

 were in working order, despite rough treatment, and that they were 

 pointed back, toward the tail of the worm. From this we must 

 infer, either that the bird was indifferent to the rasping of the 

 bristles on the walls of its throat, or that the sharp resistance they 

 exhibited added spice and flavor to the writhing morsel. But, for 

 all that, any explanation is merely conjecture, and why the Hermit 

 Thrush should choose to begin its meal with the tail of its victim 

 remains a curious, though not a profound, subject for speculation. 



RECENT INVESTIGATIONS OF THE FOOD OF 

 EUROPEAN BIRDS. 



BY F. E. L. BEAL. 



A PAPER upon the food of the Rook {Covtus fnigihgiis) by Dr. 

 Hollrung, appears in the Seventh Annual Report of the Experi- 



