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THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
nest,81 and have repeatedly been seen to be thrown up by captive
birds.82 Their contents comprise many fragmentary beetle
remains, teeth of bank vole, mice and rat fur and bones, shrews,
etc., and but very few bird-remains.83
We have numerous examples in the Essex Museum, includ-
ing some which were actually taken from a nest in Texel by Mr.
W. Glegg: they contain the maxillae and teeth of field vole,
fur of same, rami and teeth of shrew, recognisable feathers of
robin, the skull and sternum of a small bird (? robin), some
fish scales (perhaps derived at second hand from the shrew),
comminuted remains of beetles, some small rounded fragments
of stone, and a small metal disc.
Lesser Kestrel.
Mr. Howard Saunders records that numerous ejected pellets
of this bird litter the towers frequented by it; their contents
included remains of insects, especially cockchafers and other
beetles, also grasshoppers and remains of small lizards.84
Cormorant.
Mr. George Bolam, describing a visit he paid to a roosting-
place of these birds in Wales, noted castings lying beneath the
roosting-trees. He noted scales of perch, roach, or rudd, and
once remains of eel, as forming part of the food-masses.85
Mr. T. A. Coward describes a characteristic attitude of
Cormorants, "As they sit they gape, as if blase; probably
they are striving to eject the pellets of undigested food."86
Shag.
Mr. A. H. Patterson records how a bird of this species, which
he kept in captivity, ejected the more indigestible fish-bones of
its food "after the manner of an owl."87
Heron.
Herons are well known to cast pellets. There are good
specimens in our Stratford Museum, which were picked up be-
neath the trees of the heronry at Wanstead Park: their size is
considerable.
81 Zoologist, 1908, p. 347.
82 Cf. Zoologist, 1899, p. 113; ibid. 1865 p. 9678. British Birds, iv., 1910-11, p. 302.
83 Cf. Zoologist, 1895, p. 173; 1878, p. 347: 1888 p. 269; 1892, p. 364; 1871, p. 2739;
1872, p.3099; 1873, p. 3467. Bolam's Wild Life in Wales, 1913, pp.260, 356.
84 British Birds, 1889, p. 346.
85 Wild Life in Wales, 1913, p. 46.
86 Birds of the British Isles, 1919, p. 350.
87 Nature in Eastern Norfolk, 1905, p. 168.