Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 150, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 June 1919 — Thrush Has Own Method of Slaughtering the Shelled Snails to Get the “Goody” [ARTICLE]

Thrush Has Own Method of Slaughtering the Shelled Snails to Get the “Goody”

In districts where shelled snailsare abundant it is no rare thing, says a writer, to come across a stone utilized as a Slaughter block by some particular thrush-. Even if the bird is not caught in the act, numerous broken and empty shells scattered in the neighborhood betray the place where the mollusks have been done to death. The method adopted by the thrush is simply that of dropping a .snail from a height time and again until the shell is broken and the succulent body within is exposed to the captor’s beak. But the anvil Is sometimes made use of in a different way and with a different end in view. The other day, in the depths of a Highland bjrch wood, an observer came uftpn such a sacrificial stone, at which a thrush was busily occupied. Field glasses made evident that not a snail but a commop black slug was his captive. This he grasped by the middle with his beak, dashing It repeatedly with resounding smacks upon the stone, whence it occasionally rebounded, only to be caught and hammered bnce more. Subsequent examination of the stone revealed with what effect the operation had been carried out. But what of its purpose? Here was no. shell to be broken. It may be that the thrush simply wished to kill Its prey, but the fact that thrushes swallow wriggling worms without hesitation renders this explanation improbable. it is more likely that the skin of the slug was too thick and coarse to be palatable and that* the thrush, was simply endeavoring to dash out the edible portions within; or that it was attempting to render the skin more tender by . a method analogous to the domestic “batting of a steak.