BIRD PELLETS—EVIDENCE AS TO FOOD OF BIRDS. 137
Dissection of the pellets shows remains of water beetles,
bones of water vole, mole and other mammalian fur, claws of
mole and the claw of a rat?; bones of birds are included.
One of the Wanstead Park pellets is interesting from the
fact that in it is embedded a portion of the sternum, with its
characteristic spine, of the great water beetle (Hydrophilus
piceus) which is rare in the district: another contains an elytron
of the commoner aquatic beetle Dyticus marginalis.
Purple Heron.
Mr. A. H. Patterson records that a young male bird of this
species, on dissection, was found to contain in its stomach "a
pellet of mouse hair, probably of the short-tailed species."88
Common Bittern.
It would appear that the Bittern shares the habit of pellet-
casting, as observers have noted the presence in the stomach of
"a hard pellet of the fur of some animal,"89 and "the fur of
water rats and mice, rolled up in small, hard, oblong pellets."90
Domestic Goose.
Some presumed pellets of this bird from Kew Green and from
Epping Forest, alike composed of plant-husks, are in the Essex
Museum, as are also similar "pellets" obtained from the Chinese
Goose (Cycnopsis cycnoides) from an ornamental lake at Car-
narvon, N. Wales.
Ring-Dove.
The well-known falconer, Mr. J. T. Mann, of Bishop's Stort-
ford, records his surprise at observing that the Ring-dove ejects
pellets. He says: "When hawking in Cambridgeshire on Dec.
15th, I went from the open land through a wood frequented
(at that season) by hundreds of wood pigeons. Among their
droppings I saw some oval-shaped 'castings,' about an inch in
length. I have noticed this in the shrikes, rooks, and swallows,
but never in this form in the pigeon. I am aware of the manner
they feed their young, but I must say I was ignorant of the fact
of pigeons ejecting castings such as I found composed of husks
of barley and beech-nuts, grass, or clover, and small stones."91
88 Nature in Eastern Norfolk, 1905, p. 171.
89 Zoologist, 1864, p. 8961.
90 Zoologist, 1879, p. 115. 
91 Zoologist, 1887, p. 193.