128
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
remains in a globular mass or pellet, which is afterwards ejected
from the mouth."38
Saunders writes to the same effect. 39
Our member, Mr. F. J. Stubbs, confirms that the Cuckoo
throws pellets. He says (in litt., Nov. 20, 1922), "These are
cast by the nestlings, at least, but it is a long time since I noticed
any."
Barn Owl.
Records of more or less detailed dissections of pellets of this
Owl, taken from the nest, are legion: it is only necessary here
to give a list of the included remains and references to the original
notes.40
The constituents of the pellets examined were as follow:—
Noctule Bat Mole
Pipistrelle Bat Pigmy Shrew
Young Rat Small birds (greenfinch, house-spar-
Long-tailed Field Mouse row, thrush, dunlin, starling,
House Mouse skylark, young rook, blackbird,
Field Vole etc.)
Bank Vole Frog
Common Shrew
The Barn Owl has been seen to throw up its pellets.
Specimens of Barn Owl pellets in the Essex Muesum have
been found to contain bones of long-eared bat, a complete skull
also teeth and bones of brown rat, portions of the cranium and
jaws of a small mus, a ramus with teeth of field vole, mammalian
fur, a skull of a finch, and various unidentified bones.
Long-Eared Owl.
Castings of this bird have been picked up in and about the
nest, and examined by various observers.
Their contents included remains of brown rats, long-tailed
field mice, field voles, common shrews, bank voles, water voles,
frogs, toads, sparrows, buntings, chaffinches and other finches,
a swallow, and beetles.41
38 History of British Birds, 1884, p. 381.
39 British Birds, 1889, p. 278.
40 Frances Pitt's Wild Creatures of Garden and Hedgerow, 1920, p. 84. Zoologist, 1873
pp. 3685-6 ; ibid. 1849, p. 2477 ; ibid. 1910, p. 136. Bolam's Wild Life in Wales, 1913, p. 312.,
Mag. of Nat. Hist. 1832-33, p. 727 and p. 13. Birds of the British Isles, 1919, p. 291. Harting,
in his edition of White's Selborne, p. 178. Zoologist, 1879, p. 341; ibid. 1886, p. 159; ibid.
1912, p. 128; ibid. 1901, p. 137; ibid. 1902, p. 212; ibid. 1907, p. 127; ibid. 1908, pp. 127.
and 346; ibid. 1905, p. 226 ; ibid. 1876, pp.4832 and 4871; ibid. 1894, p. 87; ibid. 1888,
p. 83; ibid. 1893, p. 173. Land and Water, May 1, 1919. Bell's Brit. Quadrupeds 2nd
edn., p. 144. Zoologist, 1898, p. 215; ibid. 1906, p. 121. British Birds, V., p. 113. Board of
Agriculture, Leaflet No. 51.
41 Zoologist, 1892, p. 364; ibid. 1904, pp. 259, 385; ibid. 1905, p. 312. Saunders's British
Birds, 1889, p. 284. Journ. Northamptonsh. Nat. Hist. Soc., June 1898 (quoted in Zoologist, 1898,
pp. 449-451). Harting, in his edn. of White's Selborne, p. 178. British Birds, 1915-16, p. 59.