124
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
food of Ravens than might have been suspected. . . . Below is 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; 1, a cherrystone;
1, 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.24
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.25
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.
23 Essex Naturalist, xvi., p. 120.