128 THE ESSEX NATURALIST. 
remains in a globular mass or pellet, which is afterwards ejected 
from the mouth.’’38 
Saunders writes to the same effect.39 
Our member, Mr. F. J. Stubbs, confirms that the Cuckoo 
throws pellets. He says (im litt., Nov. 20, 1922), “ These are 
cast by the nestlings, at least, but it is a long time since I noticed 
”) 
any. 
BARN OWL. 
Records of more or less detailed dissections of pellets of this 
Owl, taken from the nest, are legion: it is only necessary here 
to give a list of the included remains and references to the original 
notes.4° 
The constituents of the pellets examined were as follow :— 
Noctule Bat Mole 
Pipistrelle Bat _ Pigmy Shrew 
Young Rat Small birds (greenfinch, house-spar- 
Long-tailed Field Mouse row, thrush, dunlin,  starling, 
House Mouse skylark, young rook, bates 
Field Vole etc.) 
Bank Vole Frog 
Common Shrew 
The Barn Owl has been seen to throw up its pellets. 
Specimens of Barn Owl pellets in the Essex Muesum have 
been found to contain bones of long-eared bat, a complete skull 
also teeth and bones of brown rat, portions of the cranium and 
jaws of asmall mus, a ramus with teeth of field vole, mammalian 
fur, a skull of a finch, and various unidentified bones. 
LonG-EARED OWL. 
Castings of this bird have been picked up in and about the 
nest, and examined by various observers. 
Their contents included remains of brown rats, long- -tailed 
field mice, field voles, common shrews, bank voles, water voles, 
frogs, toads, sparrows, buntings, chaffinches and other finches, 
a swallow, and beetles.# 
38 History of British Birds, 1884, p. 381. 
39 British Birds, 1889, p. 278, 
40 Frances Pitt’s Wald Creatures of Garden and Hedgerow, 1920, p. 84. Zoologist, 1873 
Pp. 3685-6 ; tbid. 1849, p. 2477 ; 1btd. 1910, p. 136. Bolam’s Wild Life in Wales, 1913, p. 312., 
Mag. of Nai. Hist, 1832-33, p. 527 and p. 13. SButrds of the British Isles, 1919, p. 291. Harting, 
in hisedition of White’s Selborne, p. 178.  Zoologist,1879, p. 341; ibid, 1886 »P. 159 ; ibid. 
Igi2,p.128; ibid. 1901, p. 137; wid. 1902, p. 212; 1bid. 1907, p. 127; 1bid. 1908, pp. 127. 
and 346; ibid. 1905, p. 226 ; tb1d. 1876, pp. 4832 and 4871 ; tbtd, 1894, p. 87; 1bid. 1888, 
p. 83; ibid. 1895, p. 173.. Land and Water, May 1, 1919. Bell’s Brit, Quadrupeds and 
edn., p. 144. Zoologist 1898, Pp. 215 ; tbid, 1906, p. 121. British Birds, V., p. 113. Board of 
Agriculture, Leaflet No. 51. 
41 Zoologist, 1892, p. 3643; tbid. 1904, pp. 259, 385 ; tbid. 1905, p. 312. Saunders’s British 
Birds, 1889, p. 284. Journ, Northampionsh. Nat. Hist, Soc. , June 1898 (quoted in Zoologist, 1898, 
Pp. 449-451). Harting, in his edn, of White’s Selborne, p. 178.{British Birds, 1915-16, p.59. 
