306 MODE OF EATING. [CHAP. v. 



I kept a plentiful supply of minnows : they would 

 devour a prodigious quantity of these fish in the day. 



" I have observed them take their food in the follow- 

 ing manner : attentively watching the approach of their 

 prey, they would suddenly, as if by a paroxysm, close 

 their feathers more tightly to their bodies, and taking a 

 short spring upwards, dash down into the water, which 

 was a foot deep, and at the bottom of which the min- 

 nows lay. With unerring aim they would seize their 

 prey, and float on the top of the water for a second, 

 holding the fish across in their beak. On alighting on 

 their favourite branch, they would strike it against the 

 branch, right and left, for a few seconds, until the fish 

 became stunned and quiet, when with a sudden catch 

 the head is turned towards the gullet, and down it goes. 

 The bird leaves the water without a feather being 

 wetted, and after it has filled its maw, it then makes 

 several dashes into the fountain, uttering a peculiar 

 shrill cry, no doubt of pleasure, as if it were enjoying 

 its bath. From thence it flies to its roost, and then 

 becomes inactive for some quarter of an hour or twenty 

 minutes, its feathers rumpled, and sitting all of a heap, 

 sleepy and stupid. This lasts during digestion, which 

 is very rapid ; and as soon as it is completed, the bird 

 is observed to be opening its bill very wide two or three 

 times, and at length ejects a pellet, about an inch long, 

 composed of bones, beautifully matted together, and 

 not unlike a lump of Epsom salts (you see I cannot 

 help comparisons, which are natural to me). This mass 

 is perfectly inodorous, and forms, in the wild state, the 

 nidus for the deposit of their eggs, in the holes to which 

 they continue to resort year after year, for breeding 



