Energetic electrons are precipitated from the slot region of the radiation belts by a variety of mechanisms, including short duration wave bursts associated with lightning and chorus and more slowly varying plasmaspheric hiss. Characteristics of the nightside short duration precipitation events, including their favored occurrence at certain longitudes in the northern hemisphere, indicate that they are predominantly associated with lightning. The dayside events seem to relate primarly to VLF chorus. Here a study is made of various characteristics of the short duration precipitation bursts, namely, the longitude and L shell variations, the day/night differences, the energies of spectral maxima, and the rapid spectral variations with time. In addition the total loss rates of electrons from the radiation belts are obtained from the measured energy spectra and pitch angle distributions. An assessment is made of the relative importance of the bursts as a loss mechanism for slot region electrons in comparison to the more slowly varying precipitation processes. The assessment is based on a comparison of the energies of the peaks often observed in the energy spectra of both classes of precipitation. The slowly varying electron fluxes observed in the drift loss cone frequently display peaks in the energy spectra which indicate that they are precipitated by plasmaspheric hiss and that this process therefore represents a major loss mechanism. Well-defined bursts, which appear to be associated with lightning at nighttime and perhaps chorus in the daytime, were observed on only about 2% of the satellite passes and are generally of lower energy than the general population in the drift loss cone, suggesting that the bursts are not the dominant loss mechanism. There is some overlap between distributions in peak energy, and lightning may play a role in precipitating electrons form the slot region primarily at nighttime, with its greatest contribution at low L shells.