RAPACIOUS BIRDS, 249 



capture, kill, and devour ; abstaining, unless stimu- 

 lated by necessity, from creatures they may find 

 dead. Then come the pies : of these, the raven and 

 crow likewise 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 jrook, 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 requite similar 

 aliment, diet at their separate boards. Of the 



* 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, im- 

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

 commences his depredations upon these parts. 



