If interested in following up on this subject, try to find a copy of
A New Dictionary of Birds, edited by Landsborough-Thomson, (Nelson,
1964)
and look for "Pellet" (p. 608 in my copy). There is a page of discussion,
from which I quote a few extracts:
PELLET: An agglomeration of the undigested portions of a bird's food that,
instead of being evacuated with other waste material, is regurgitated and
ejected via the mouth; sometimes referred to as a 'casting'. The contents
of the pellet often give valuable clues as to the food of the birds
producing them, and they are therefore of assistance to ornithologists
investigating the feeding habits of birds and changes of diet consequent
upon seasonal conditions.
Pellets are best known in respect of birds-of-prey but ... birds of widely
differing species regularly eject pellets; among the apparently less likely
groups are the honeyeaters (Meliphagidae) and flowerpeckers (Dicaeidae).
There are records of more than 60 different species among British birds
alone that cast up pellets.
Generally speaking, the pellet is composed of hard materials such as bones,
claws, beaks, insect wing-cases and so on, surrounded by softer substances
such as fur, feather and vegetable matter.
At times, birds that cannot find sufficient binding or protective substances
in their normal food to form a normal pellet will pick up materials quite
unconnected with the food taken. The writer* has found pellets of the
Heron Ardea cinerea that contained small mammal bones or crayfish claws
surrounded by paper or cellophane wrapping.
Many pellets are almost impossible to identify without additional
information ... as pellets of a given bird frequently vary very much in
size and shape, only a careful assessment of all other details available -
plus dissection - will result in precise identification.
(* Maxwell Knight, O.B.E. Camberley, Surrey, England)
My '64 copy of the Dictionary is the original publication. I don't know if
there were any later editions.
Cheers
Syd Curtis (Brisbane)
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