BIRD PELLETS—EVIDENCE AS TO FOOD OF BIRDS. 135
Peregrine Falcon.
Pellets of large size, picked up at the nest, were found to
consist chiefly of rabbit's fur72, or of remains of rock dove,
stock dove, and other smaller birds.73
A captive hen bird was noticed, as long ago as 1844, to
throw up pellets.74
Pellets of Peregrine Falcon found near St. Abb's Head were '
found, on examination, to be almost entirely composed of bones
and feathers of gulls, mixed in other cases with feathers of
partridge and bones of rabbits and leverets.75
Pellets of this species in the Essex Museum, which were
taken from an eyrie containing three eggs, consist chiefly of
mammalian fur and bones, feathers and bones of birds, and a
few grass-fibres.
Hobby.
Castings found in the nest were associated with large beetle-
elytra, a foot and part of a wing of blackbird, one tail-feather
of song thrush, and wing and tail feathers of blue tit,76 also
the wing of a Wheatear and the leg and foot of swift.77
A female hobby, shot near Norwich in 1858, was found, on
dissection, to have a pellet of feathers ready for excretion.78
Merlin.
A visitor found many pellets of this bird at the nest, together
with remains of meadow pipit, greenfinch and grouse.79
Mr. W. Rowan saw a nestling merlin throw up a pellet, with
some difficulty. He says: "It gave him nearly as much trouble
to eject this as the swallowing of the leg [a pipit's leg] had given
him."80
Pellets of Merlin in the Essex Museum collection, taken
from a nest containing young birds, include feathers and bones
of birds, beetle and other insect remains, a small quartz-frag-
ment and a pine-needle.
Kestrel.
Pellets of this bird are frequently met with in and about the
72 Zoologist, 1876, p. 5029.
73 British Birds, III., 1909-10, p. 55
74 Zoologist, 1844, p. 555.
75 Yarrell, 4th ed., I., p. 59.
76 Zoologist, 1907, p. 335.
77 British Birds, III., p. 320
78 Zoologist, 1858, p. 6058.
79 Zoologist, 1905, p. 267.
80 British Birds, XV., 1922, p. 247