344 BRITISH BIRDS. 



LITTLE OWL IN WARWICKSHIRE AND 

 WORCESTERSHIRE. 

 An adult female specimen of the Little Owl {Athene noctua) 

 was shot at Barston, Warwickshire, on November 15th or 

 16th, 1908, by Mr. Russell. It is not the Sutton Coldfield 

 specimen already recorded {antea, Vol. II., p. 240). The distance 

 between the two places would be fifteen to twenty miles. 

 No other specimen has been seen by Mr. Russell. 



Another example was shot at King's Norton, Worcester- 

 shire, on October 14th, 1907. This bird rose from a ditch, 

 and the gentleman who shot it mistook it for a Woodcock I 

 Another has been seen there since, and I have urged the 

 gentleman not to shoot it. Both my specimens are adult 

 females. 



F. COBURN. 



THE FOOD OF THE COMMON EIDER. 



That the Common Eider {Somateria molissima) feeds mainly 

 on shell-fish is well known, yet the following summary of the 

 results of a number of dissections which I have made may be 

 of interest to the readers of British Birds. 



On one occasion I found the remains of a crab in the gizzard, 

 and of a crab and starfish in the crop. 



" Periwinkles " seem to be very commonly eaten. I have 

 taken as many as twenty of their shells from a single gizzard. 



In many Eiders a bulge in the throat may often be seen, 

 and on examination this proves to be caused by a " Razor- 

 shell " {Ensis siliqua), locally known as the " Spute-fish," and 

 used by the fishermen as a bait. Sometimes one valve of the 

 shell is missing. Examples as long as eight inches are some- 

 times swallowed, and often one end of the shell is broken, 

 leaving a jagged edge. The dissolution of the contained 

 animal evidently takes place in the crop, and the shell is, we 

 may assume, ejected, as other birds eject pellets, since it could 

 never pass through the intestines. It is curious that Razor- 

 shells are never found in birds killed in the early morning. 



The shells of univalves are disintegrated, partly, apparently 

 by the action of the gastric juices, and partly by the trituration 

 of the gizzard. 



The Eider is also fond of limpets. My boatman once reared 

 an Eider drake, which was the terror of the limpet-pickers on 

 the island, for it would steal the limpets as fast as they were 

 detached from the rocks, and would attack the pickers with 

 great spirit, using beak, wings, and feet, should they object to 

 the levying of this toll ! H. W. Robinson. 



