I22 THE ESSEX NATURALIST. 
and other hard parts of Coleoptera, are found in abundance about 
their haunts.’’'5 
Examples of pellets of the Red-backed Shrike are in the 
Essex Museum collection at Stratford: they contain remains 
of ground beetles (Plerostichus, sp. and Harpalus, sp.). 
SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. 
Pellets were found under a nest of this bird in Regent’s Park,'® 
and were likened to “ blue pills.’ Mr. E. W. Harcourt records 
that, while watching a Spotted Flycatcher, he noticed that it 
looked somewhat uncomfortable, with its feathers ruffled and 
its neck extended. ‘In a minute or two it rejected from its 
mouth a pellet about the size of a horsebean, and then hopped 
away apparently much relieved. Upon my picking up the 
pellet I found it to be composed of a mass of beetles’ wings and 
other entomological curiosities.’7 
SWALLOW. 
Yarrell states that this bird shares the habit of throwing up 
pellets. 18 
House MARTIN. 
Seebohm tells us : ‘“‘ The food of the Martin is composed en- 
tirely of insects ; and the refuse of this food, such as wing-cases, 
etc., is cast up in the form of pellets.”’'9 ; 
CHOUGH. 
Mr. George Bolam, in his ‘‘ Wild Life in Wales,’’2° remarks : 
“A person who claimed to have a special acquaintance with the 
bird in North Wales informed me that he could recognise 
almost with certainty a cliff inhabited by Choughs from the 
castings left about the top of the rock, and which, he said, always 
contained numerous fragments of beetles.” 
An observer, writing in the Zoologist, states: ‘ Castings 
lying on the ground showed that the birds had been eating barley 
already.’’2! 
MAGPIE. 
Mr. C. J. Cox, in 1864, found numerous castings under a 
15 Zoologist, 1845, p. 1136. 
16 Zoologtst, 1876, p. 5042. 
17 Ibid. 1889, p. 265. 
i8 Yarrell, 4th edn., I., p. 59. 
19 History of Brittsh Birds, 1884, p. 183. 
20 Wild Life in Wales, 1913, Pelgss 
21 Zoologist, 1910, p. 48. 
