406 FLYCATCHERS. 



tion of currants (of which he only eats perhaps when confined), 

 he refuses all exotic productions, contenting himself with 

 blackberries, whortle-berries, the berries of the sassafras, cornel, 

 viburnum, elder, poke, and five-leaved ivy. Raisins, foreign 

 currants, grapes, cherries, peaches, pears, and apples were 

 never even tasted when offered to a bird of this kind, which I 

 had many months as my pensioner ; of the last, when roasted, 

 sometimes, however, a few mouthfuls were relished in the 

 absence of other more agreeable diet. Berries he always swal- 

 lowed whole, grasshoppers, if too large, were pounded and 

 broken on the floor as he held them in his bill. To manage the 

 larger beetles was not so easy ; these he struck repeatedly against 

 the ground, and then turned them from side to side, by throwing 

 them dexterously into the air, after the manner of the Toucan, 

 and the insect was uniformly caught reversed, as it descended, 

 with the agility of a practised cup-and-ball player. At length 

 the pieces of the beetle were swallowed, and he remained still 

 to digest his morsel, tasting it distinctly soon after it entered 

 the stomach, as became obvious by the ruminating motion of 

 his mandibles. When the soluble portion was taken up, large 

 pellets of the indigestible legs, wings, and shells, as likewise 

 the skins and seeds of berries, were, in half an hour or less, 

 brought up and ejected from the mouth in the manner of the 

 Hawks and Owls. When other food failed he appeared very 

 well satisfied with fresh minced meat, and drank water fre- 

 quently, even during the severe frosts of January, which he 

 endured without much difficulty ; basking, however, like Dio- 

 genes, in the feeble beams of the sun, which he followed round 

 the room of his confinement, well satisfied when no intruder 

 or companion threw him into the shade. Some very cold 

 evenings he had the sagacity to retire under the shelter of a 

 depending bed-quilt, was very much pleased with the warmth 

 and brilliancy of lamp-light, and would eat freely at any hour 

 of the night. Unacquainted with the deceptive nature of 

 shadows, he sometimes snatched at them for the substances 

 they resembled. Unlike the Vieros, he retired to rest without 

 hiding his head in the wing, and was extremely watchful. 



