244 RAPACIOUS BIRDS. 



nate as Rapacious, such as falcons, hawks, owls, 

 live upon animal food which they capture, kill, 

 and devour; abstaining, unless stimulated by ne- 

 cessity, from creatures they may find dead. Then 

 come the pies : of these, the raven and crow like- 

 wise eat animal food, but it is generally such as 

 has been killed by violence or ceased to exist, only 

 in cases of want * killing for themselves. The rook, 

 the daw, the magpie, consume worms, grubs, and 

 are not addicted, except from hunger, to eating 

 other animal matters. The two first feed at times 

 in society ; the latter associates with neither, but 

 feeds in places remote from such as are frequented 

 by them. The jay too eats grubs and such things, 

 but seeks them out under hedges, in coverts and 

 places which others of his kind abandon to him. 

 The cuckoo seems principally to live upon the eggs 

 of birds, with a few insects and larvae occasionally ; 

 the wryneck upon emmets, from heaps under 

 hedges near concealment the woodpeckers upon 

 insects found upon trees ; and when they seek for 

 the emmet, they prefer the ant-heaps of commons 

 and open places \ the halcyon upon small fishes : 

 thus all these creatures, even when they require 

 similar aliment, diet at their separate boards. Of 



* The crow in the spring, when food is difficult of attainment, 

 will kill young pigeons ; and the magpie having young ones, cap- 

 tures the new hatches of our domestic poultry : but these are cases 

 of necessity rather than habit. The raven has a decided inclination 

 for the eyes of creatures, and finding lambs in a weak state, imme- 

 diately plucks them out, and when the animal is recently dead, 

 commences his depredations upon these parts. 



