BIRD PELLETS—EVIDENCE AS TO FOOD OF BIRDS. 123 
magpie’s nest, composed almost entirely of the elytra of small 
beetles.?? 
JACKDAW, 
Specimens of castings of this bird are in the Essex Museum, 
and consist of plant-fibres, oat-husks and grass-stems. 
RAVEN. 
Mr. George Bolam gives an interesting account of his dis- 
section of pellets of the Raven, which I quote in full. He says : 
“With a view to obtaining accurate data upon the focd of the Raven, 
I took the trouble to examine closely a considerable number of the pellets, 
by which these birds, like their relatives, get rid of the indigestible portions 
of their food. These were picked up, from time to time, beneath roosting 
or nesting places, and besides showing how little comes amiss to such birds 
as food, and the manner in which it varies with the season of the year, give 
some indication of the distances that are daily travelled for it. The sea is 
roughly about twenty miles from Llanuwchllyn [Merioneth] yet at all seasons 
some pellets showed traces of food obtained on the shore. Of this, fragments 
of the shells of mussels, and crabs, were the most frequent, with occasional 
bits of clam and other shell fish. Bones of fish, bits of sea-weed, etc., also 
commonly occurred, as well as round, water-worn pebbles, that were, no 
doubt, from the sea-beach. More frequently, however, any stones found in 
the pellets consisted of bits of glassy quartz, such as might be picked up 
about the mountain tops. These must either be swallowed inadvertently, 
sticking to other food, or (as I think more probable) from the same curiosity as 
prompts a tame bird to steal any glittering object. Grass, leaves of trees and 
similar vegetable matter are, no doubt, taken adhering to other focd. In 
summer skulls of voles, mice and rats were very numerous, particularly the 
first named, these animals being, no doubt, captured upon the hills. Moles, 
too, were frequent, about equally so throughout the year, many of them, also, 
doubtless the result of independent capture, though others, perhaps, may 
have been killed in traps and flung aside. Fur and bones of rabbits were 
fairly numerous at all seasons, as was also the wool of sheep, and sometimes 
the hair of cattle and dogs; but what interested me most was the infre- 
quency with which egg-shells, feathers, or other remains of birds, occurred, 
Of egg-shells I could never, save once, detect a single trace, and of the pellets 
examined not above ten per cent. contained any bird remains, at any season, 
' while they were always most frequent in winter. Grouse feathers were natur- 
ally the most ‘prevalent, since that was the most likely bird to be found 
dead, or wounded, about the moors: immature Starlings were almost the 
only other bird identified, and occurred most often in autumn (? from the 
capture of young birds, when crossing the moors, or from the picking up of 
the remains of hawks’ meals), once or twice a few feathers of duck, or sea- 
fowl, were noticed, and twice the skull of a small finch. During summer 
numbers of beetle wing-cases were nearly always present ; and that no fewer 
than thirty-one of the pellets, details of which are given below, picked up in the 
depth of winter, when beetles are largely hidden from view, should have con- 
tained such remains, seems to point to those insects forming a more favourite 
22 Zoologist, 1864, p. 8953. 
