I24 THE ESSEX NATURALIST. 
food of Ravens than might have been suspected. . . . Belowis given a 
detailed result of an analysis of 433 separate pellets collected at random from 
amongst a mass of those lying beneath a roosting-place of Ravens, near 
Llanuwchllyn, and brought home for inspection during the last days of 
December, 
‘“ Fifty-one were composed of wool only, or wool mixed with other obvious 
remains of sheep; 119 contained wool mixed with bones, hair, and other 
substances, not apparently belonging to sheep; 28 contained hair and re- 
mains of cattle ; 1, hair, probably of a dog; 37 remains of rabbit ; 48, re- 
mains of rat; 49, or, perhaps more, remains of mice, or voles, chiefly the 
latter ; 54, moles ; 3, shrews; 1, the skull of a water-shrew ; 2, hedgehogs ; 
2, stoat or weasel ; 2, fish scales and bones, in one of them the scales being 
very large ; 25, remains of birds, frequently only a feather or two, but in 
one Case, apparently, nothing but the remains of grouse, probably of almost 
an entire bird ; 47, shells, and other seashore subjects—crabs, bits of sponge, 
sea-weed, etc. ; 31, elytra and other remains of beetles, in some instances 
in large numbers ; 1, the cocoon of a moth—an oak-egger ; 1, fragments of 
shell which appeared to have belonged to a domestic fowl’s egg ; 17, husks 
of oats ; 4, husks of wheat ; 17, of beech mast ; 26, of acorns ; 2, of sycamore 
seeds ; 27, various small seeds not identified with certainty ; I, a cherry stone ; 
I, parts of the shell of a hazel nut ; 2, cones or seeds of pine tree ; 13, leaves 
or ‘needles’ of same ; 49, cotyledons, or buds of trees—oak, beech, alder, 
pine, etc. ; 30, grass, moss, fern leaves, bits of stick, etc.; 17, pieces of stone, 
lime, chalk (in one instance), cinder, etc., but by far the most common of 
such mineral substances were bits of white quartz, in one or two cases in glassy, 
crystalline form. Amongst the 47 containing matter obviously brought from 
the seashore, were 11 that included fragments of the shells of sea-urchins, 
and one that contained a piece of coralline zoophyte.’’23 
J. H. Salter found a pellet of this omnivorous bird to be 
composed of.wool, and to contain a lamb’s hoof.?4 
Specimens of pellets of Raven in the Essex Museum are of 
very varied composition, and contain broken mammalian bones, 
wool and fur, grass and plant fibres, and moss. 
CARRION .CROW. 
Miss G. Lister found numbers of pellets of Carrion Crow in 
the Jura, composed of cherrystones, with a few beetle remains ; 
one pellet contained, in addition, fur and bones of mouse.?5 
A pellet in the Essex Museum, believed to: be from this 
bird, contains oat-husks, crab remains, and a fragment of beetle 
—a mixed diet ! 
ROOK. 
Rooks’ pellets are of very frequent occurrence beneath the 
nesting-trees, and captive birds have been seen to throw them up. 
23 Wild Life in Wales, 1913, p. 222. 
24 Zoologist, 1895, p. 139. 
25 Essex NATURALIST, Xvi., p. 120. 
