BIRD PELLETS—-EVIDENCE AS TO FOOD OF BIRDS. 125 
Pellets picked up beneath tall trees are usually flattened by the 
impact with the soil, or even shattered from the fall. 
Their contents are varied, and include root-cuticles of Couch 
Grass, husks of oats, small snail shells (Helix caperata and Pupa 
secale), remains of centipedes and weevils, etc., generally accom- 
panied by small fragments of brick, stone, chalk or grit. 
More curious constituents of rooks’ pellets, which several 
observers have remarked, are indiarubber rings from ginger- 
beer bottles and indiarubber bands. Whether these articles are 
actually swallowed by the Rooks on account of their supposed 
food-value, or merely collected by them because of the attraction 
of their bright red colour, is a doubtful point. Specimens of 
these strange constituents in the Essex Museum, from Wanstead 
Park, were picked up beneath the nests, but were not actually 
contained in the pellets. The pellets themselves contain plant 
fibres, oat-husks, elytra and femora of beetles, a wire-worm, and 
remains of woodlice, mixed with fragments of brick, chalk and 
stone. One pellet sent me by Mr. J. H. Owen, from Felsted, 
contains fragments of eggshell of a hen.?° 
SWIFT. 
Seebohm records that “ the indigestible portions of the food, 
such as wing-cases, etc., are cast up in pellets, and the nests 
often contain a great many of them.’’?7 
Howard Saunders says : “ Insects taken on the wing form the 
food, and the indigestible portions are rejected in the shape of 
pellets.’’28 | 
ALPINE SWIFT. 
Seebohm records that “ all the hard parts of its food, such as 
the wing-cases of beetles, are cast up again in the form of pellets, 
as is the case with many insectivorous birds.’’?9 
NEEDLE-TAILED SWIFT. 
Again Seebohm is our informant. He says: “‘ The food of the 
Needle-tailed Swift is composed entirely of insects of different 
kinds, the indigestible parts of which are cast up in pellets.’’%e 
26 Cf. Zoologist, 1894, p.67; tbid., 1866, p. 297. Birds of Essex, p. 135. Glasgow Naturalist, 
1910, pp. 130-1. Land and Water, March 6, 1919. ESSEX NATURALIST, Xvi., p. II9, 
Zoologist, 1854, p. 4330. Dresser’s Birds.of Europe, art. Rook, p. 6. 
‘27 History of British Birds, 1884, p. 296. 
28 British Birds, 1889, p. 252. 
29 History of British Birds, 1884, p. 299. 
30 History of British Birds, 1884, p. 305. 
