94 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES 



sorting the end of his bill into their hiding places, 

 he drew them out one by one, and, lifting them 

 gently up, swept them into his gullet by a sim- 

 ple motion of the head and neck, and an almost 

 imperceptible movement of the tongue. If his 

 appetite was keen, however, he did not stand to 

 parley, but attacked the mass pell-mell, striking 

 and devouring each worm singly with astonish- 

 ing ease and despatch, until his wants were satis- 

 fied or not a single individual remained. 



Before he was fully feathered the worms could 

 easily be observed twisting in his crop, as he sat 

 dozing at his ease, like an alderman after his din- 

 ner. No doubt some of our delicate readers will 

 regard this as rather an indifferent subject of 

 remark ; but we assure them, without intending 

 in the least to crack jokes, that the sight was 

 nuts to us, and we were at a loss to invent means 

 to glorify that woodcock. 



The snake-bird Plotus Melanogaster which 

 does not even eat snakes, by the way, and the 

 secretary bird, which does were mere gobbling 

 creatures of instinct compared with him. He 

 went to his feasts as scientifically and with as 

 much gusto as Lucullus himself. It really seemed 

 as if his whole tribe had owed the worms of the 

 earth an irreconcilable grudge since the days of 



