Having continued his observations of and conversations with Renfield over a course of nearly three months, Dr. Seward comes to the conclusion that his patient is a “homicidal maniac,” but “of a peculiar kind.” He classifies Renfield as a “zoöphagous (life-eating) maniac,” who is trying to take into himself as much life as possible by eating living creatures—and those cumulatively. Renfield started by collecting flies, which he fed to spiders, which he fed to a bird; he then ate the bird, feathers and all, while it still lived.