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.26
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."27
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."29
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."30
26 Cf. Zoologist, 1894, p. 67 ; ibid., 1866, p. 297. Birds of Essex, p. 135. Glasgow Naturalist,
1910, pp. 130-1. Land and Water, March 6, 1919. Essex Naturalist, xvi., p. 119.
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.