408 OBSERVATIONS ON 



devour the young wasps in their maggot state with the 

 highest glee and delight. Any insect-eating bird would do 

 the same ; and therefore I have often wondered that the 

 accurate Mr. Ray should call one species of buzzard 

 buteo apivorus she vespivorus, or the honey buzzard, 

 because some combs of wasps happened to be found in 

 one of their nests. The combs were conveyed thither 

 doubtless for the sake of the maggots or nymphs, and not 

 for their honey : since none is to be found in the combs of 

 wasps. Birds of prey occasionally feed on insects; thus 

 have I seen a tame kite picking up the female ants full of 

 eggs with much satisfaction. 



ROOKS 



Rooks are continually fighting and pulling each others' 

 nests to pieces : these proceedings are inconsistent with 

 living in such close community. And yet if a pair offer 

 to build on a single tree, the nest is plundered and 

 demolished at once. Some rooks roost on their nest 

 trees. The twigs which the rooks drop in building supply 

 the poor with brushwood to light their fires. Some 

 unhappy pairs are not permitted to finish any nest till the 

 rest have completed their building. As soon as they get 

 a few sticks together, a party comes and demolishes the 

 whole. As soon as rooks have finished their nests, and 

 before they lay, the cocks begin to feed the hens, who 

 receive their bounty with a fondling tremulous voice and 

 fluttering wings, and all the little blandishments that are 

 expressed by the young, while in a helpless state. This 

 gallant deportment of the males is continued throughout 

 the whole season of incubation. These birds do not 

 copulate on trees, nor in their nests, but on the ground 

 in the open fields. 



THRUSHES 



Thrushes during long droughts are of great service in 

 hunting out shell snails, which they pull in pieces for their 



