TCD MS 10516 folio 62 recto
[12th October 1916] me still more for it combined the methods of both the Tern and the Kingfisher. I have watched it dealing with a large locust that it seemed to find some difficulty in swallowing. In imitation of the Kingfisher, it pounded the locust first on one side, then on the other side of the branch; then, finding its grasp of the insect unsuitable, it adopted the methods of the Tern and pitched the locust into the air to secure a better hold as it fell down again. There is always a sense of pleasure in witnessing birds performing their distinctive habits, but that pleasure is increased when the same peculiarity of habit is discovered in species widely separated in the scale of being and occupying very different places in the economy of organic life.