HAIR IN THE STOMACH 97 



years ago that a tame Starling did this with horse- 

 radish which had been soaked in vinegar, a delicacy 

 for which it promptly made when allowed to get 

 to the meal-table. 



A more natural proceeding, one would think, 

 would be to rub the offending morsel on the 

 ground, a proceeding I have seen a captive Babbler 

 (Crateropus canorus) of mine follow out with a 

 caterpillar, armed with most penetrating spiny 

 bristles, before eating it. Such caterpillars, as well 

 as the softer-haired ones, are generally avoided by 

 all birds, but as is well known, the Cuckoo eats 

 them so freely that its stomach gets lined with their 

 hairs, and the common Cuckoo of America {Coc- 

 cyzus americanus) has the same habit ; as this is a 

 non-parasitic bird, it would seem that the habit of 

 eating food unpalatable or dangerous to other 

 birds is older in Cuckoos than the parasitic habit. 



When I was in Zanzibar in the early 'nineties 

 I used every morning to see a pair of Glossy Cuckoos 

 {Chalcococcyx cwpreus) visit the little backyard of the 

 hotel where I stayed to feed on the highly " warning- 

 coloured " caterpillars of a moth of the same genus 

 {Ewproctis) as our " gold-tail," and the toad-eating 

 Coucal is a member of the Cuckoo family, though 

 not parasitic, like the American Cuckoo. 



Every one knows that it would not be safe to 

 follow the guidance of the birds in eating wild 

 berries ; a Hornbill, indeed, even feeds on the 

 fruit of Strychnos nux-vomica, from which stryclinine 

 is obtained. Hutton also found, when collecting 

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