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BIRD BEHAVIOUR

OTHER VOLUMES

OF

Hutchinson's Nature Library

ALREADY ISSUED
INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

By EDWARD STEP, F.L.S., author of " Messmates,"
" Toadstools and Mushrooms of the Countryside,"
etc.

MESSMATES ; A Book of Strange Companionships
By EDWARD STEP, F.L.S., author of "The Ro-
mance of Wild Flowers," "Shell Life," etc.
With 55 illustrations from photographs on art paper.

THE COURTSHIP OF ANIMALS

2nd Edition. By W. P. PYCRAFT, A.L.S., F.Z.S.,
Zoological Department British Museum, author of
" A History of Birds," " Story of Reptile Life," etc.
With numerous illustrations on art paper.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

THE INFANCY OF ANIMALS 2ndEdmon

With 64 plates on art paper and numerous illustra-
tions in the text.

MM*

YOUNG OF BARN-OWL.

Although their white down is very different from the feathers of the old birds
these nestlings have the face just like the adult.

TYPES OF PHEASANTS.

Argus (top left), Golden (top right), Mikado (centre), Silver (bottom), showing different
styles of masculine decoration.

Frontispiece.

BIRD BEHAVIOUR

PSYCHICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL

BY

FRANK FINN, B.A. (OXON), F.Z.S.

Late Editor of " The Zoologist"

AUTHOR OF

"BIRDS OF THE COUNTRYSIDE," "EGGS AND NESTS OF BRITISH BIRDS,"
"THE WORLD'S BIRDS," ETC.

" Behold the fowls of the air. "-ST. MATTHEW vi. 26

WITH 44 ILLUSTRATIONS ON ART PAPER

LONDON
HUTCHINSON AND CO.

PATERNOSTER ROW

BIOLOG
LIBRARY

TO THE

ANIMAL-DEALERS OF LONDON

IN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THEIR

SERVICES TO SCIENCE
* • « • •

• "•* I ''"I: D.ECJICATE THIS BOOK

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

Importance of subject — Incompleteness of our information about
even the commonest species — Distinction between major and
minor habits — General activities or tricks of manner —
Greater importance of the latter in classification — Errors to
be avoided in observation . . . . pp. I- 1 2

CHAPTER II

The locomotion of birds — Hopping and walking — Reasons for
adoption of these gaits — Why waterfowl waddle — Swimming
and diving — Perching and climbing — Different methods of
performing these actions — Specialized birds which have taken
to different habits, as Ground-Parrots and Land Geese — Flight
and its varieties — Characteristic methods according to group
and size — Sailing and soaring flight — Speed . pp. 13-32

CHAPTER III

The nutrition of birds — Various kinds of food, animal and vege-
table— Methods of and adaptations for obtaining it — Changes
of diet — Gluttony of some species — Power of discrimination
among foods, both vegetable and animal — The much-discussed
relations of birds to insects, especially butterflies pp. 33~7^

3748

vi CONTENTS

CHAPTER IV

Nutrition (continued) — Manipulation of food — Powers of diges-
tion, differing in different groups — The formation of pellets
or castings — Difference in the food of old and young in some
cases — Different methods of feeding the young — Young assist-
ing parents in feeding their juniors — Feeding of each other
by the sexes — Drinking, and eating of such substances as salt
and earth ..... . pp. 77-112

CHAPTER V

Propagation — Care of young — Different types of young birds —
Different modes of feather-development, as seen in young
Fowl, Pigeon, or Duck, for instance — Egg-coloration and its
meaning and variations — Prolificacy and otherwise — Incuba-
tion mounds — Periods of incubation . . pp. 113—165

CHAPTER VI

Propagation (continued) — Nest-making not purely a bird-habit —
Eggs laid without nests — Types of nests — Parasitic nesting —
— Parasitic layers, like Cuckoos and Cow-birds — Degrees of
development of parasitic instinct . . . pp. 166-205

CHAPTER VII

Migration — An anciently observed phenomenon still imperfectly
understood — Reasons for it — Methods as far as is known —
Difference between migratory species and the homing Pigeon
— Widespread tendency toj migration, contrasted with con-
tradictory tendency to form localized non-migratory races,
ending in some cases in Sightlessness, as in some birds of
remote islands . . . . . . pp. 206-224

CONTENTS vii

CHAPTER VIII

The senses of birds — Sight and its general high development —
Degree of perception of colour — Influence of colour, if any,
on courtship, and the segregation of species — Perception of
the colour in various kinds of food — Smell, usually poorly
developed — Exceptions noted — Acuteness of hearing — Sense
of touch — Taste-perceptions . . . pp. 225-254

CHAPTER IX

The emotions of birds — Mentality higher than is supposed, but
variable according to species or groups — Strong- and weak-
minded birds — Intelligence and stupidity — The limitations
of instinct — Expression of the emotions and its relation to
courting displays — Love and sociability — Hatred and re-
venge— The police instinct — Monogamy, polygamy, and
polyandry — The problem of preferential mating pp. 255-280

CHAPTER X

Song and cries of birds — Bird-language generally — Extent to
which the notes are instinctively developed — The instinct of
mimicry — Species which can imitate human speech — Problem
of this ability and extent of exercise of the same — Possibility
of understanding of bird-language by man . pp. 281-292

CHAPTER XI

Weapons and fighting methods of birds — Their combats with
each other and with various natural enemies — Chief enemies
of birds — The passive resistance of birds to unfavourable
climate and surroundings — Natural defences — Perfection and
degeneracy of plumage in this connection — Powder-coating of
some groups pp. 293-302

viii CONTENTS

CHAPTER XII

Special instincts of birds — The play of young birds and of adults
— Bower-builders and their peculiarities — Ornamentation of
nests — The instinct for food-storage in some forms — The
practice of piracy — Toilet and bed-time habits pp. 303-318

CHAPTER XIII

Special physiological peculiarities of birds — Longevity — Tempera-
ture of body — Change of colour in bare skin of some, such as
Turkey — The phenomena of the moult — Gradual change in
colour of bill and feet according to age and sex or season
— Changes in iris colour — Beak-sheath shedding as in Puffin

pp. 319-328

CHAPTER XIV -

Abnormalities — Hybrids, their characteristics and power of repro-
duction or otherwise — Abnormal plumages, such as albinism
or melanism, temporary or permanent — Overgrowth of claws
and bill pp. 329-342

CHAPTER XV

Relations of birds with men — Persecuted species — Parasitic or
commensal species — Domestic forms — Introduced forms and
the results of introduction . . . .pp. 343~3S6

INDEX pp. 357-363

ILLUSTRATIONS

YOUNG OF BARN-OWL . . . Back of Frontispiece
TYPES OF PHEASANTS .... Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

THE BIRD-COLONY IN THE CALCUTTA Zoo . . 10
NEST OF SOCIABLE WEAVER-BIRDS . . .11

PUFFIN ...... 36

GREAT BLACK WOODPECKER .... 36

MERGANSER ....... 3^

SHOVELLER ........ 3^

FLAMINGOES ....... 37

AVOCET ........ 46

HUIA (FEMALE) . . ... . . .46

HUIA (MALE) 46

HERON ........ 46

RHINOCEROS HORNBILL ..... 47

SPOONBILL ........ 47

PEREGRINE FALCON ...... 47

FLAMINGO ........ 47

RHINOCEROS HORNBILLS ..... 50

Toco TOUCANS . . . . . . • 51

ix

x ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

LYRE-BIRDS (MALE AND FEMALE) ... 54

IMPERIAL WOODPECKERS . . . -55

BOURU FRIAR-BIRD ...... 82

BOURU ORIOLE, SHOWING RESEMBLANCE TO FRIAR-
BIRD .83

YOUNG HOATZIN . . . . . • *32

BRUSH-TURKEY 133

OVEN-BIRD .133

CONCAVE-CASQUED HORNBILL . . . .170

BRAZILIAN HANG-NEST I?1

TYPES OF PENSILE NESTS 180

NEST OF CENTRAL-AMERICAN SWIFT . . .181

GuACHAROS AND NEST . . . • .184

FLAMINGO ON ITS NEST . . . . .185

SwiFTLETS AND THEIR NESTS . . . .185

HAWK-CUCKOO OR " BRAIN-FEVER BIRD " . . 194

SHIKRA HAWK . . . . • • • *95

AMERICAN KING-BIRD . . . . . 278

KING-CROW 279

AFRICAN JA9ANA . . . . . • 296

CUBAN TROGON 297

GARDENER BOWER-BIRD WITH ITS BOWER . . 310

NEWTON'S BOWER-BIRD 311

HYBRID BETWEEN GOLDEN PHEASANT AND FOWL . 330

HERRING GULLS 33 l

BIRD BEHAVIOUR

CHAPTER I

Importance of subject — Incompleteness of our information about
even the commonest species — Distinction between major
and minor habits — General activities or tricks of manner —
Greater importance of the latter in classification — Errors to
be avoided in observation.

THE study of birds is often looked down upon by
general zoologists as a trifling pursuit, and the reason
of this is not far to seek ; what is called zoology
nowadays is for the most part the study of com-
parative anatomy, and from this point of view birds
are of extremely small interest ; they are remarkably
uniform in their general structure, and such varia-
tions of note as do occur are chiefly confined to
a few flightless families, such as Ostriches and Pen-
guins.

One need not, indeed, be an anatomist to realize
the comparatively small structural interest of birds ;
a bird is at once and by everybody recognized as
such, while among the mammals, their rivals in
high development, one gets such extraordinarily
different types as whales, mice, bats, horses, lions,
i

2 ':• •': BIRD BEHAVIOUR

adftd meti,' most of which differ from each other more
than trie earliest known bird, the Arckao'pteryx of
Jurassic times, does from the modern Sparrow in the
back-garden.

On the other hand, the numerous species and
families of birds and their close alliance with each
other afford, by this very narrow range of differentia-
tion, an attractive and philosophical study ; among
them survive types which in mammals have become
" missing links " or are only discoverable in the
fossil state. In fact, it is the survival of so many
connecting forms that makes it so difficult to group
the families of birds into larger " orders," a difficulty
which only occurs with mammals when we look
back among their fossil predecessors preserved among
the rocks.

We look, for instance, with interest upon the
remains of the various ancestral predecessors of the
horse family, as exhibited in museums, and try to
realize what changes of habit must have occurred
to convert a small animal with paws into a large
one with a single hoofed toe on each foot. But
among the birds, if we go to the Duck family
(Anatida) we find still in existence practically all
the links between a light-bodied, large-winged bird
with non-waterproof plumage and half-webbed
feet with large grasping hind-toe, and almost
exclusively aquatic diving Ducks which rival the
Grebes and Cormorants in their subaqueous per-
formances, and exhibit almost as much modification
of structure. And the habits of these can be

DUCKS AND EVOLUTION 3

studied, for they are not only living, but accessible ;
the semi-wader at the beginning of the series, the
Australian Magpie-Goose (Anseranas stmipalmata)
is no rarity, and I have spent much time in study-
ing a full-winged specimen, at Kew, while the
habits of many others of the family exemplifying the
gradations I have mentioned are accessible either to
direct observation or to any one who can look up
bird literature.

In fact, the Duck family is one of the most inter-
esting of all animal groups for any one interested
in biological problems, owing to the wide distribu-
tion of its members, their essential and obvious
alliance combined with equally striking differences
— some obviously adaptive, others more inexplicable
— and I shall have a good deal to say about them
in the course of this book, especially as they are
familiar exhibits in many public parks, and thus
available for everybody's observation.

The availability of birds, as a class, for study gives
them, in fact, an importance in the study of animal
habits which fairly outweighs their insignificance
from the morphological point of view ; and I
personally have never admitted that the study of
structure is more important than that of habit,
considering that it only acquires its pre-eminence
from the fact of demanding a professional training
which is the prerogative of a few only. When one
comes to think of it, we ourselves only surpass the
other mammals in virtue of our habits, being
structurally simply monkeys on our hind legs ; yet

4 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

he would be a bold zoologist who would claim that
comparative anatomy is a more important study
than that of the manifold activities of mankind.
If one admits that the study of habit is to be taken
seriously — and of late there has been a decided
trend in that direction — bird-watching needs no
apology, for the habits of birds are of manifold
variety, and not by any means fully understood,
even in the case of the commonest and most familiar
species. In fact, these are sometimes, perhaps, less
well understood than the comparatively inaccessible
ones ; it has often struck me, in view of the excellent
observations that have been made of late years in
the Antarctic by various expeditions, that we know
more about the mind and life of the Adelie Penguin,
one of the remotest birds on the globe, than we do
about those of the Peacock, the best known by sight
and reputation of all birds for a couple of thousand
years.

And here one must bear in mind that an observer
should be no respecter of persons ornithologically ; a
bird is not necessarily more worth observing because
it is difficult of access, and that naturalist was very
unscientific who said about the Sparrow, " I have
got into the habit of not noticing this bird." Per-
sonally I am always seeing something fresh in the
humble Sparrow's performances, and though my
taste as a fancier lies in the direction of birds of
beauty, I must admit that the humbler species
are often more interesting. But they are not
necessarily so ; dowdiness is no more a sign of

FREE AND CAPTIVE BIRDS 5

intellect in a bird than in a human being, and
Aristotle was quite right in stigmatizing some birds
as " dull in colour and leading a dull life," while
some of those which are stigmatized as " garish "
possess habits and qualities of surpassing interest,
the Peacock in particular. I particularly mention
the Peacock, because it is a purely Indian bird, but
widely diffused about the world in a domestic
state ; but its domestication is not rigorous, so to
speak, and it is allowed to lead practically a natural
life. This needs to be noticed, because there is a
regrettable tendency among naturalists to confine
their observations to the wild birds native to their
own country, to the neglect of introduced, domes-
ticated, and captive species.

A free bird is, of course, other things equal, the
best and most instructive subject for observation,
and many habits can only be observed on birds in a
state of liberty, and in their own country at that ;
but nevertheless, many very interesting hints may be
gleaned from the study of birds not so situated,
and these may always be checked by the study of
their recorded habits in a natural state. Where
such records do not exist, the study of captive birds
is a useful stimulus to field observers to take up the
matter, and often an observation on a tame or
captive bird brings out a point which the field
observer almost necessarily overlooks, owing, in
many cases, to want of opportunity to discriminate
between individuals — a point which will become
evident later on.

6 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

The best of all birds for observation are, of course,
those which live in a tame but free state in their
own country, such as Wood-Pigeons in London, and
House-Crows (Corvus splendens) in Indian towns,
though even here the difficulty of identifying
individuals is a drawback. The growing practice
of ringing birds, however, which is proving so
useful in throwing light on problems of migration,
will probably be of service in making records of
individual birds in the near future, and in this
connection it is worth noting that spring net-traps
can be obtained in which many species of birds can
be readily captured without injury for this purpose.

In considering the habits of birds we have to
realize that they fall into two categories, which may
perhaps be called major and minor habits, or per-
haps, habits and customs. By major habits I mean
the leading and conspicuous life- activities of a
species ; its food, manner of nesting, mode of
association (solitary or gregarious), etc. On these
its life obviously depends, and to them its structure
is often plainly adapted. Yet, as its life depends on
the adjustment of its main activities to its sur-
roundings, it is just these habits that are particularly
liable to vary even in a state of nature, and especially
so under the influence of man's interference, direct
or otherwise. Habits of this sort are fairly, though
not completely known in the case of a vast number
of birds, but will always require study, as they are
so subject to modification by circumstances.

The minor habits, or mannerisms as we should

VERSATILITY OF SPARROW 7

call them in the ease of persons, are not nearly so
familiar, and have not been jvorked out fully even
in many very well-known birds. Such are pecu-
liarities in gait, flight, and other actions ; attitudes
under emotion, positions assumed in repose, etc.
Often these have no apparent connection with any
necessity, and they are practically invariable for
the species and often for the group, and not alter-
able by circumstances.

To take a concrete instance ; the common Spar-
row, as every one knows, eats seed, for the cracking
of which its bill is specially adapted ; it perches
in trees, and has feet adapted for grasping twigs ;
it also builds its nest in trees, and associates in
pairs and flocks. These are its major habits, and
every one knows they are subject to modification ;
it eats many things besides seed, especially remnants
of man's food ; it builds under eaves as well as
among boughs, and will sleep in its nest or in a
crevice of a wall, as well as on a twig, in spite of
its grasping feet. In spite of its short wings, it
chases insects in the air, and hovers and drops
on them in long grass like a miniature Kestrel.

In other words, its major activities are, though to
some extent correlated with its structure, highly
variable, and this, no doubt, is one great reason
for its success as a species. If actively interfered
with by man it can vary still more ; a hand-reared
Sparrow has been known to acquire a Linnet's
or Canary's song.

In some points, however, the Sparrow is invari-

8 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

able ; it never acquires the habit of holding down
its food with one foot, though this would be of
vital importance to it in enabling it to consume
large articles of food when perched on a small
bough, and thus escape risk of ground enemies.
Though largely a ground-feeder, it hops and does
not run, and does not hold up its tail to keep it
clear of wet ; when courting it has a definite
display, with wings lowered and head and tail
raised. It rolls in dust as well as washing, a com-
bination of habits rare among birds, and when
scratching itself it lowers its wing and raises its foot
over it. Some of these minor habits may have
significance, but this is not obvious ; what is obvious
is that they are common to all Sparrows, and are
often group-characters ; thus, all the vast group of
generally small birds — the Passerines, of which the
Sparrow (Passer) is type and name-father — seem
to drop a wing when scratching. Habits of this
kind do not alter even in captive birds, although
they may learn strange habits of feeding and nesting,
and even alien songs.

Hence such characters are often useful in classi-
ficatipn, just as anatomical characters or inconspicu-
ous external ones are of more importance than
the general contour. Thus, all anatomists of late
years have impressed upon us that the Swallows
and Swifts must not be considered near relatives
because of their similar forms — long-winged, small-
footed, and short-billed — since these may be ac-
counted for by adaptation to a similar life spent in

SWIFTS AND SWALLOWS 9

chasing flying insects, and the anatomical characters
of the Swifts differ from those of the Swallows,
which present no important internal differences
from the ordinary small passerine birds^ There
are small differences also in external characters
which are not to be correlated with modes of living ;
the Swifts have but ten tail-feathers to the Swal-
lows' twelve, and have not the scales on their shanks
which are usual in birds. There is also a conspicuous
difference in habit which seems to have no relation
to utility, and hence is more likely to be a family
character ; in flight the Swallow every now and
then draws in its wings to its sides — it still shows a
sign of the typical small passerine bird's flight
with its occasional dips with closed wings — while
the Swift always keeps its wings fully expanded,
whether skimming motionless or renewing its
impetus by means of wing-beats.

Small details of habit are thus always worth
observing, as they may be more significant than
they seem, and in any case are good practice in
observation.

Some pitfalls in observation or in drawing con-
clusions from the same need mentioning in con-
clusion. The danger of the major habits becoming
modified in captivity or domestication has been
alluded to, and is, indeed, made rather too much of
by some writers ; still, it is well to bear it in mind.
There is also the difficulty of the field observer in
discriminating between individuals — often between
the sexes, when these are alike. One must never

io BIRD BEHAVIOUR

assume anything ; if a bird is displaying, it is not
necessarily a male, for instance. Quite apart from
the fact that in many species the hen is the dominant
sex, as in Phalaropes and Cassowaries, the hen may
display even in those in which the male is well
differentiated and very self-assertive ; thus, I have
seen a Peahen display to a Peacock, and a hen
Turkey to the gobbler, these males in both cases
remaining passive, so that had the sexes been alike,
one would certainly have been tempted to draw
very false conclusions about their behaviour.

Then one must be very cautious in keeping free
from prepossessions ; it is quite easy to see what
is not there, if one has some image already in
one's mind. We laugh at the error of the old
naturalists who credited the Osprey, as a fishing-
bird-of-prey, with one taloned foot and one webbed
one ; these odd extremities no doubt seemed to
them appropriate, but I have seen almost equally
gross instances of faulty observation of points of
form and colour in the work of modern naturalists
of the best repute.

Such errors can, of course, easily be checked, but
when it comes to actions, unless the camera is at hand
for the recording of such (which can be but rarely
the case), the evidence is necessarily dependent on
a number of witnesses. Every one is liable to err,
and any observer is liable to have the opportunity
of observing an action or occurrence which is rare
or strange, and will be disbelieved until some one
else arises to coirfirm it.

H rt
H ai

3 I

W M

o «

NEST OF SOCIABLE WEAVER-BIRDS.

" Republican Grosbeak " was the old name for this Weaver, which is a plain-plumaged,
Sparrow-like bird.

INCONSISTENT CORMORANTS 11

One should thus be very careful in discrediting
the observations of others if they do not happen to
agree with one's own, especially if such were
recorded many years ago ; a record is not necessarily
bad because it is ancient, nor good because it is
new. Even one's own observations may contradict
each other at times, as happened to me in my
experience of our wild colony of the small Indian
Cormorant (Phalacrocorax javanicus) in the Calcutta
Zoo. These birds came in the evenings to their
roosting-place on a wooded island in a large pond,
and usually swooped down, Swallow-fashion, to take
a drink on the wing before going up to roost.
This was an unusual feat for a Cormorant to per-
form (although it must be remembered that this
species is a light-built, long-tailed bird of only the
size of a Teal), and, from the way in which the
birds began to gape before touching the water,
and often involuntarily checked their way so much
that they had to settle after all, they evidently found
it a difficult one. It so happened, too, that once
for some time they gave the habit up, and settled
in flocks in the water to drink in the normal way,
though they afterwards resumed the custom of
the flying sip ; and I can well imagine that any
one who had seen them thus drink sitting would
put down my record of the flying drink as most
far-fetched and out of all congruity with the
structure and habits of a Cormorant.

Very likely the birds had adopted a really new
habit, in drinking flying ; at any rate, we know

12 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

new habits do occur — I rather fancy that I dropped
across one of late, in finding the Sparrows peeling
off the inner bark of the limes for nesting- material,
even when they could easily get straw, and I find
the habit not uncommon in the Regent's Park
district, as many barked branches testify.

There is, therefore, always room for observation,
confirmatory or original, and no conscientious
observer need fear to record what he or she sees,
for there is no such thing as authority in science,
and the veriest beginner may often put the expert
to the blush.

CHAPTER II

The locomotion of birds — Hopping and walking — Reasons for
adoption of these gaits — Why Waterfowl waddle — Swimming
and diving — Perching and climbing — Different methods of
performing these actions — Specialized birds which have taken
to different habits, as Ground-Parrots and Land-Geese —
Flight and its varieties — Characteristic methods according to
group and size — Sailing and soaring flight — Speed.

So old an author as Pliny gives some remarks on the
locomotion of birds, many of them quite accurate,
as when he points out that Crows walk and Spar-
rows and Blackbirds hop. Such differences in
action are well known to most people, but it is just
as well to have them summarized.

The usual gait of birds is a walk, that is to say,
when they are considered by groups ; it is true the
majority of small birds one sees are hoppers, but
that is because the common small birds of most
parts of the world are passerines, and in this group
hopping is the usual gait, walking being customary
only in some of the larger species, such as Crows,
and in groups which, like Crows, habitually seek
food or even live on the ground, such as Wagtails,

13

14 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

Pipits, Larks, and Starlings. As passerine birds
are all primarily adapted for a life in trees, even the
Larks still having a typical percher's foot, and as
jumping from bough to bough is a natural and
habitual movement, it seems natural that this
should be continued in all except those most
thoroughly adapted to a ground life.

The same reasoning applies to the Hornbills,
among which family are to be found the only large
birds which hop ; there are two species of this
usually very short-legged and highly arboreal family
which have legs of the ordinary length and live
mostly on the ground, the Ground-Hornbills (Bu-
corax), and these move their legs alternately in
the ordinary walking fashion and are even able to
run well, which some walking birds do not do —
most Herons and Storks, for instance. In the case
of these Hornbills, it is to be noted that the hind
toe is just as well developed as in the perching
kinds, and that they walk on the end joints of the
toes, the ball of the foot being raised above the
ground, so that one could put a marble under it.
This would be unique among birds, which usually
tread on the whole under-surf ace of the toes, where
these are on the same level — i.e. the hind toe not
set on higher — were it not for the case of the
Ostrich, which lifts the basal joints of its two
toes off the ground even more, so that its foot can
fairly be said to have a pastern-joint, like that of the
hoofed beasts with which it habitually grazes. In
the Ostrich reduction of the toes is carried to an

HOPPERS AND WALKERS 15

extreme, but in most running birds the hind toe
is absent or greatly reduced, and useless, so that
the case of the Ground-Hornbills, Larks, Desert-
Choughs (Podoces), and other running members of
perching groups is unique, as they alone of all
running creatures have the bearing-surface of the
foot well developed behind as well as in front.

Unfortunately for our explanation, the Hornbills
and passerines do not exhaust the list of groups of
birds in which some members run and others hop ;
and in the other cases it is difficult to assign a reason
for the difference of gait. Pigeons, except some
(not all) of the most terrestrial kinds, are all short-
legged, and most live largely in trees, but they
nearly all walk, although some of the most arboreal
Fruit-Pigeons do hop as well ; I have seen this
most in the Lilac-crowned Fruit-Pigeon (Ptilopus
coronulatus). Parrots, again, are mostly tree-birds,
and all short-legged, some very much so, but they
generally walk, although the Lories form an excep-
tion by hopping. Kingfishers do not move on
their feet at all if they can help it, and all without
exception are very short on the leg ; yet the great
Australian Laughing Jackass, which is more of a
ground-feeder than any other, is a hopper, while
the few others I have been able to study all walk,
or rather waddle. So do Bee-eaters, at least the
Australian and European species (Merops ornatus
and M . apiaster) ; but of two Indian kinds of
Nightjars I have seen one walk and the other hop,
and the only Trogon (Prionotelus Umnurus) whose

16 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

gait I have ever studied, hopped; and all these birds
are short-legged. The shortest-legged Passerines,
too, are the Swallows, but these walk when on
the ground instead of hopping. Among Cuckoos
and Rollers, the practice is more rational, so to speak,
for the short-legged species hop, while the longer-
legged Ground- Rollers and the magpie-like Bush-
Cuckoos, like the Indian Crow-Pheasant (Centropus
sinensis), run. Toucans, Barbets, and Woodpeckers
all seem to hop, and this about exhausts the list of
hopping birds, all of which, it will be noticed, are
essentially perchers, so that hopping undoubtedly has
something to do with the perching habit.

Walking-birds, however, may hop when in a
hurry, as one may see with Rooks, Starlings, and
even Wood-Pigeons, while birds of prey, which
normally walk, though but little, hop so readily when
" cornered" by a broken wing as to have given rise
to the notion that hopping is their natural gait.
Conversely hopping birds of the Thrush tribe often
take a run for a few feet. Waterfowl have a bad
name for clumsiness in walking, and certainly some
of the more specialized kinds waddle awkwardly on
account of the wide distance between their legs,
which is convenient for swimming, but necessarily
produces a rolling gait. This also badly handicaps
them in perching, which so many of them do, especi-
ally in hot climates, for they find it difficult to walk
along a small bough ; and in the case of the perching
Ducks, the dwarfed hind- toe is of no use for a grip,
so much so that I have seen such active species as

PERCHERS AND CLIMBERS 17

the Mandarin Duck and Andaman Teal (Ncttium
albigulare) slide right over and off a perch on
which they had tried to alight. Only Cormorants
and Darters among waterfowl seem at all at home
in trees, and these have a powerful gripping foot
with well-developed hind-toe, and more freedom
in the legs than is usual in diving birds.

In travelling along a perch, the most active, as
well as the clumsiest perchers, are apt to move
sideways ; thus the lively Sparrow and the heavy
Cormorant both sidle on a bough, though the
ground-living Fowl and the arboreal Parrot walk
foot over foot, for which the in-turned feet of the
latter are particularly suitable. The most active
birds at this pole-walking are the Guans and the
Touracous, which run along boughs like squirrels,
and at the same time can leap long distances from
one perch to another; but on the whole, the
more active the bird, the more apt it is to adopt
the sidelong gait on a bough, often turning round
with each hop, a method of procedure which seems
calculated to make it giddy.

In climbing, several methods are employed ;
Parrots, as every one has seen, hook themselves
along with their beaks as well as their claws, though
they do not do this in the wild state as much as one
would think from seeing them caged ; and Cross-
bills, those Parrot-like Finches, climb in the same
way. Woodpeckers and typical Creepers, however,
climb quite differently from Parrots, but like each
other, though the last group are Passerines and not
2

1 8 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

related to the former ; both hop upwards or side-
ways on boughs and trunks, resting on their stiff-
pointed tails, and letting themselves slip back if,
which is seldom the case, they want to descend.
The Nuthatch, which is not stiff-tailed, has the
advantage of these extreme specialists in being able
to climb in any direction, down as well as up.

Swimming is generally performed by alternate
strokes of the feet when the bird is on the sur-
face, and simultaneous strokes when it dives ;
but Auks, though they swim like other birds on
the surface, propel themselves when below with
their half-closed wings, and the Penguins never
use their feet in the water at all, apparently, but
rely entirely, both on and under the surface, on
their flipper- like wings. Land- birds can gener-
ally swim if they are put to it, those which run
swimming with their legs — I have seen a young
Peacock thus save himself ; those which rely on
their wings will flap themselves ashore, which I
have seen a Swallow do after it had fallen in ; but
they soon become draggled and exhausted, and
except for the large flightless runners, cannot go
any distance, in spite of being unable to sink. The
giant runners, however, are as strong swimmers as
beasts. I have known of a Cassowary making land
after a four miles' swim in a by no means calm
sea. Land-birds when swimming sink low in the
water, but, curiously enough, so do some of the most
specialized divers ; the Cormorants swim with the
tail awash, and the allied Darters only show the

LAND GEESE AND GROUND-PARROTS 19

head and long neck above water, most amply
justifying the name of Snake-bird given to the
Indian species.

It is curious to note how one finds some swimming
birds completely deserting the water, and taking
to a land life, though still retaining nearly complete
webs to the feet; for instance, the Australian
Cereopsis Goose (Cereopsis novte-bollandia) seems
never to go into water except to wash, or to escape
when wounded, and the Hawaiian Goose (Nesocben
sandvicensis), which lives on the old lava-flows in
the mountains of its native islands, exists, during
most of the year at any rate, without any water at
all, even for drinking, getting the needful moisture
from its food of berries and succulent herbs like
sow-thistle. Conversely, we have, in the Dippers
or Water-Ousels, Thrushes with ordinary perching
feet which swim and dive.

So also one may find the Parrots, so peculiarly
adapted for a life in trees, keeping not only to
ground life like Partridges in the case of the Aus-
tralian Ground-Parrakeet (Pezoporus formosus) and
Night-Parrakeet (Geopsittacus occidentalis), but even
waxing fat and losing the power of flight, in the
case of the New Zealand Kakapo or Owl-Parrot
(Stringops babroptilus), which looks like a gigantic
degenerate form of the last. And among Cuckoos,
birds also specialized mostly for tree-life, we have
the swiftest runner of all birds in the American Road-
runner or Chaparral-cock (Geococcyx mexicanus),
which is only about the size of a Magpie, and yet

20 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

can run for hundreds of yards ahead of a horse or
dog, being thus proportionately swifter than the
Ostrich. It is curious, by the way, that no hopping
bird attains high speed or power of long-distance
travelling on foot, although, judging from what
Kangaroos and Jerboas can do in this way, one
certainly would have expected this to happen.

In the flight of birds there is of course less possible
variation than in their movements on land and
trees, or in water, but still there are some very
characteristic differences. What may be called the
normal or usual flight is by continuous strokes, as
is .usual in Pigeons, and universal in the Duck
tribe ; but this progression may be interrupted
either by sailing intervals, both by slow-flapping
birds like the Gannet, or quick-whirring ones like
the Partridge; or by closing the wings and so
dropping, to rise again with a fresh flutter, which
is the usual method in Passerine birds, Wood-
peckers, and Barbets, all tree-birds or relatives of
such, be it noted, and most of them small, so that
the method is probably adopted to gain impetus :
just as many birds, such as Ducks and Parrots, roll
much in their flight, apparently to put a " screw "
on to themselves and increase pace. In the Hoopoe
the flap and closure of the wings alternate so quickly
that the bird looks just like a big butterfly.

The resemblance of many Parrots to wildfowl in
their flight is indeed curious ; both groups stretch
out their necks in front and their feet behind,
although this backward extension of the feet was

SOAKERS AND SAILERS 21

supposed to be a speciality of the long-legged
waders, the extended limbs acting as a rudder.
But as a matter of fact the extension of the legs
behind in flight is normal among birds generally,
the only groups that draw up their legs to the
breast being Passerines, Woodpeckers, Barbets, and
Hoopoes, all undulating flyers.

The extension of the neck is also normal in many
groups, but Passerines, Hoopoes, Rollers, birds of
prey, Herons, Pelicans, Frigate-Birds, Petrels, Gulls,
Shore-Birds, and the Carrion-Storks (Leptoptilus)
draw it in, so that here there is more latitude
allowed, so to speak. The finest flyers of all seem
generally to favour the drawn-in neck, at any rate
that is the pose with Eagles, Vultures, and Alba-
trosses, whose powers of maintaining flight for long
periods together without movement of the wings
have always evoked admiration, and still remain
unexplained. Albatrosses have narrow though very
long wings, and usually fly low ; the overland
soarers have shorter but very broad wings, and only
sail when flying high. Both groups, however, are
noticeably large birds ; small birds of any groups,
no matter how well-winged, never soar or sail very
far. This may be due to the need for weight to
give steadiness, but it is at least quite as likely that
it is connected with the more lively disposition of
small species, and with their habit and need of
picking up their food in small bits at frequent
intervals, so that they never have either the time
or inclination for soaring.

22 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

In respect of the activities of the soaring birds of
prey, it has been noted that the highest soarers are
the latest to rise, the Vultures not taking the sky
till after the Kites, and none soaring till the sun is
well up, and it has been suggested that sun-lit air
has some favourable influence on soaring. Even
over here I have observed that a fine, sunny day in
winter or early spring will set the Black-headed
Gulls on the Thames soaring, but I always put this
down to their being inspired by the fine weather
with thoughts of their home breeding-grounds, and
a preparation for travelling thither ; while I
should have said that the connection between sun
and soaring in the East was simply that the larger
carrion-feeders needed clearer air, and had to
mount higher, as their food was harder to find ;
but after an absence of a dozen years from India I
am quite willing to admit I may be mistaken.
However, sunny weather in autumn does not
seem to take the Gulls aloft, as I have had an oppor-
tunity of observing recently.

It is noticeable that soaring birds are never still,
but keep on describing circles as they float on
extended motionless wings ; as a matter of fact
they appear to descend a little and then use the
impetus thus gained to rise again, so that they are
really making spirals. A bird, except in a strong
wind, can only stand still in the air by constant and
rapid wing- action ; this is the feat of hovering, of
which the Kestrel is the most familiar exponent in
this country during most of the year, though the

FLIGHT OF HUMMING-BIRDS 23

Sparrow frequently practises the trick over long
grass in summer in order to locate insect prey.
The Kingfisher also frequently hovers, when a
handy perch to swoop from is not available, and
in India the Pied Kingfisher is the most familiar of
hovering birds, this species seeming always to
make its survey of the fishing-ground on the wing.

Hoverers of the more skilled types raise and lower
themselves with great ease and skill, such flying
reaching its perfection in the Humming-birds,
which almost invariably hover when feeding, and
dart sideways or even backwards as unconcernedly as
dragon- flies. They seem indeed to represent these
insects in the bird world, for like them they are
no pedestrians, only using their feet for perching
or clinging, since if any bird is unable to progress
on the ground it would appear to be these, and
they seldom shift their position even when perched.

In conformity with their insect-like flight, the
wings of the Humming-birds are much like those
of insects in shape, the segments of the arm between
the pinion and the body being much reduced, so
that there is little action except from the shoulder.
Not all of them, however, move their wings with
the insect-like quickness which in the small kinds
results in the hum that gives these truly fairy
creatures their name, for the largest species (Pata-
gona gigas), which is as big as a Swift, flaps its wings
at an ordinary rate of speed and quite visibly. The
slowing of the wing-stroke in accordance with
increase of size seems to be a general rule in birds.

24 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

always supposing t^ose of the same family are
compared ; thus the common Grey Heron flaps
in a very leisurely way, while the little Dwarf
Bitterns (Ardetta) use a quick fluttering stroke like
a Moorhen, and the slow heavy sweeps of the
Goose contrast forcibly with the quick wing-beats
of the Duck.

Comparing a Duck and a Heron of about the
same size, however, the Duck will be found to
move its wings more quickly, the Ducks being a
quick- action family as a whole, and the Herons a
slow one. This makes the comparatively quick
action of the small Herons interesting, as the wings in
all this family are large for the weight of the very
light body, so that we must not suppose that quick
wing-action is always connected with small wing-
area, though this is often the case, as in such birds
as Auks, where the wing has been reduced, to serve
also as an oar, to the minimum size consistent
with flight. The Great Auk went further — and
fared worse, for when man came upon the scene
some time in the Stone Age, it began to discover
the disadvantages of turning its pinions completely
into paddles.

The great soaring and sailing birds also find they
" cannot have it both ways " ; they are adepts at
saving their petrol, so to speak, and this is a point
which aviators would do well to study, as it would
be of great advantage if they could circle by the
hour without using their engines ; but they are
bad and heavy starters, rising at a low angle and

DEATH-TRAPS FOR PIRATES 25

with great effort. This is particularly the case
with the Albatrosses, which have sacrificed muscular
power to gliding capacity, and elongated and nar-
rowed their wings, to a very risky extent.

On the Australian coast there is a valley ending
in a cliff-wall which is a regular death-trap for the
local Albatrosses which pass over it on their way
home to a breeding-ground. If, when coasting
over this hollow, they dip between the walls, they
lose the wind, begin to drop, and not having suffi-
cient strength of wing-beat to "get up steam " in
the limited space in front of them, end by colliding
with the cliff at the end of the gully, when they
fall to the ground to die a lingering death from
hunger, for the walls of the valley are too steep
for them to climb, and they have not enough
intelligence and enterprise to explore a cave at
the cliff-foot which would lead them out into the
open again.

Another example of the dangers of over- develop-
ment of wings is to be found in the appropriate
fate of hanging that now and then befalls the piratical
Frigate-bird in the West Indies, as described by
Dr. P. Lowe ; this species, like so many tropical
waterfowl, frequents trees, but may easily miss its
footing when alighting and slip down among the
twigs, where its great wings cannot have full
play, and it is exceedingly likely to catch its neck
in a fork, when its very much reduced feet are of
little use in its attempts to extricate itself, and
it soon perishes.

26 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

The Frigate-bird is, however, a better starter
than the Albatross, being able to " take off " at
once. The easiest of all starters are the Gulls,
for they can spring up from a sitting position if
they like, without troubling to rise to their feet.
When Swifts start off the ground, they seem to
" take off " with their wings, like Bats when simi-
larly situated ; the idea that they cannot thus
rise is certainly erroneous so far as the common
House-Swift of India (Cypselus affinis) is concerned,
as I have proved by repeated experiments. With
regard to the power of springing up vertically at
the start, the Game-birds are unrivalled, on account
of their muscular power both in legs and wings.

The best settlers seem to be the Hawks ; it is
delightful to observe one of these birds just glide
up to a perch and touch it at exactly the right
moment, no final flapping being required ; such
accuracy of action being no doubt a necessary
accomplishment in birds which have to grasp food
when in flight and avoid injuring themselves by
concussion in so doing. But such skill has to be
acquired with practice j I have seen a young Kite
in India plunge up to its belly in a pond when
picking up an object which an old one would
have skimmed off with hardly a ripple. As a
contrast to the skill of the Hawks, we may take the
awkwardness of the Grebes, which trail their legs
even when alighting and strike the water anyhow.

I am sorry I never noted what, if any, difference
there is between young and old Kites in the matter

QUADRUPEDAL LOCOMOTION 27

of soaring ability ; but Buller, in his " Birds of
New Zealand," mentions that the immature speci-
mens of the very common Harrier of that country
(Circus gouldi), which are more conspicuously differ-
ent in colour from the adults than are the young
Indian Kites, do not soar as the old ones do, so
that they are often taken for a different species of
Hawk altogether*

In very rare instances young birds may even fly
better than adults ; this is the case, according to
Mr. W. H. Hudson, with the common Tinamous
of Argentina ; and in that very curious bird the
great grey Steamer-Duck of the coasts of southern
South America (MicropUrus cinereus)^ only the
younger individuals seem to be able to fly at all,
the older birds becoming so heavy that their small
wings simply serve to support and assist them when
running on the surface of the water, a curious
quadrupedal mode of locomotion which has attracted
the attention of all observers, but seems only to
have been fully and exactly described by Mr. M.
Nicoll in his admirable work on his experiences as
a naturalist in the cruises of the Earl of Crawford's
yacht the Valhalla. So fast can these huge Ducks
" steam " along, he tells us, that a six-oared boat
cannot overtake them or even come within shot.

Quadrupedal locomotion on land is found in the
case of the Penguins, which when pressed will use
their flipper-wings as fore-legs, the species which
inhabit snowy regions tobogganing along most
effectually in this way. As we shall see later, also,

28 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

some young birds, even among those of our own
country, employ quadrupedal locomotion.

With regard to the speed of birds in flight, some
very " tall " statements, especially of German
manufacture, have been circulated ; for there is a
strong tendency to exaggeration about this point.
Before steam-engines came in, the speed of birds'
flight could not be so well estimated as it can
now ; as Newton justly remarks in his famous
" Dictionary of Birds," the Swallow does not usually
travel so fast as an ordinary express train ; and
yet this bird is proverbial for swiftness. The speed
of the common Pigeon is also well known owing to
the popularity of Pigeon-races, and these show
that it is a good Pigeon that can do its fifty miles
an hour ; while the most ordinary observation
shows that the Pigeon, though not nearly equal in
swiftness to the Swallow, is yet much faster than
the majority of birds.

The speed of small birds tends to be exaggerated,
owing no doubt to the quickness with which they
move their wings ; thus, Common Teal are credited
with being the fastest of Ducks by some writers,
but this can hardly be the case, for in India the
Shoveller, and even the heavy Spotted-billed Duck
(Anas fcecilorhyncha) — the Mallard of India — have
been recorded as leading a bunch of Teal ; and in
America a flock of the very closely allied Green-
winged Teal (Nettium carolinense) have been seen
so hard pressed by the apparently slow-flying
White-headed Eagle that they had in desperation

RECORD PACE-MAKERS 29

to drop into the water headlong, a common man-
oeuvre with Ducks when a pursuer's speed is too
much for them.

The slow-flapping flight of large birds as com-
pared with their more briskly moving relatives in
the same family has long been recognized by sports-
men as very deceptive ; wild Swans, Capercailzie,
and wild Peafowl are all birds which need the shot
to be aimed well forward if they are to be fatally
hit, their flight being so very much faster than it
looks, especially to a shooter who has been used
to smaller fry.

The fastest birds of all appear to be, as one would
expect, some of the Swifts, the palm among these
being assigned by Blanford, in the " Fauna of
British India," to the larger species of Spine-tails
(Chatura), which are stated by observers to whizz
by with a twang like a bowstring. It is noticeable
that the spiny-tipped tail in these birds, which,
like the similarly armed tail of most Woodpeckers
and Creepers, serves as a support when the owner
is clinging perpendicularly, is so short that it cannot
be of much use in directing their flight, and in
fact the Swifts generally, though better flyers than
Swallows, distinctly tend to be shorter in the
tail, and often dispense with the fork.

In fact, the opposite development of the tail in
birds which fly well is very curious, some fine flyers
having a long forked tail, like Swallows,, Terns,
and Frigate-birds, while others, like the above-
mentioned Swifts, most Albatrosses and Vultures,

30 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

and that aerial acrobat the Bateleur Eagle (Helo-
tarsus ecaudatus) seem to have gone in for tail-
reduction, so that the steerage, etc., is evidently
given over entirely to the wings in their case.
The steering action of the tail is particularly-
observable in Kites, in which that member is often
turned almost into a vertical plane, and this charac-
teristic action was noted by the ancient Romans,
Pliny suggesting that it was the Kite that taught
men the use of a rudder to a ship.

Generally speaking, however, the most important
use of the tail is as a brake when descending ; why
it is always expanded at starting is not so obvious,
and probably the action is an involuntary one, like
the dropping of the legs by Gulls and Crows when
they check in their flight, a habit which has led
some observers into the mistaken idea that Crows,
when picking food off water, do so with their
feet, which is never the case so far as I have
observed.

Mere speed of flight, by the way, is not neces-
sarily so indispensable an asset for escaping aerial
enemies as may be supposed ; Swallows and Swifts
certainly suffer little from birds of prey, the Hobby
being the only Falcon which ordinarily catches
them, and the swift Sand-Grouse, among ground-
birds, are too much for most Falcons. But some
quite slow birds are also very difficult subjects for
Hawks, owing to the facility with which they
shift from the stroke, the Hoopoe and Lapwing
being notorious for their abilities in this respect ;

TERNS AND TROPIC-BIRDS 31

while as to the slow-flying Grass-Owl of the East
(Strix Candida), a near relative of the Barn-Owl,
Indian falconers say it is one of the birds which
<c will show you the stars," in allusion to its habit
of " ringing up " and thus escaping the pursuit of
their Falcons.

The flight of various birds, indeed, admirably
bears out the old " horsy " proverb, " They run
in all shapes " ; one often cannot at all predict
what a bird's flight will be like from looking at a
dead or caged specimen. Terns, for instance, are
so Swallow-like in build that they are often and
quite reasonably called sea-swallows, but their
flight is not at all Swallow-like, though recognizably
like that of their family relatives, the Gulls. Tropic-
birds (Phaethori) look very like Terns, and feed in
the same way, but their flight is not at all like
that of a Tern, but is performed with quick wing-
beats, like that of a Duck.

It thus differs much from that of all other long-
winged sea-fowl, but much resembles that of the
swift-flying Ring-necked Parrakeets (Palaornis) ;
and it is curious that the Tropic-bird has the long
pointed tail one usually associates with a Parrakeet.
Generally this wedge-shaped tail is favoured more
by ground-birds like the Pheasant than by fine
flyers, but besides the Tropic-birds, the Skuas also
possess it, and they are experts, being able in the
course of their piratical profession to fly down the
Terns, which have the forked tail usually associated
with dexterous flight, and very seldom found in

32 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

ground-birds, the Blackcock being the best-known
exception.

Short- winged birds may display a quite unexpected
power of flight ; thus the Jay flaps along with
slow beats like its far longer- winged relative the
Crow, can fly fast if it likes, or swoop in an almost
Hawk-like way, and often crosses the North Sea
on migration. On the other hand, birds with
large long wings may be, in rare cases, very poor
flyers, as in the case of the Secretary-bird of Africa,
this strange pedestrian Eagle having so neglected
its wings that its flight, although of Eagle-like
stateliness, is very weak, and the bird can even be
run down by greyhounds, just as the short- winged
heavy Wild Turkey is.

There are stories of Great Bustards being coursed
by greyhounds, and Xenophon says positively that
in the historic retreat of the Ten Thousand the
Greeks rode them down, " for they fly only a short
distance like Partridges, and soon give in." It
seems to me quite possible that this Bustard was
in former times on the way to degenerating into
the state of the Steamer-Duck above mentioned,
and that increasing persecution by man has simply
eliminated degenerate individuals, as the bird is
now a strong flyer and goes long distances.

CHAPTER III

The nutrition of birds — Various kinds of food, animal and vege-
table— Methods of and adaptations for obtaining it — Changes
of diet — Gluttony of some species — Power of discrimination
among foods, both, vegetable and animal — The much-discussed
relations of birds to insects, especially butterflies.

" WORMS and flies," mentioned by Shakespeare in
Macbeth as the food of birds, are certainly the
staple of the large majority of the class, at any
rate if we take both terms in the wide old-fashioned
sense, in which a worm meant anything long-
shaped, and a fly almost any flying insect ; for on
small invertebrate life birds mostly depend, and
even when the old birds are mainly or largely vege-
tarian, the young feed, or are fed by their parents,
on animal food in perhaps the majority of cases.

This diet is probably ancestral, for it is at least
probable that the reptilian ancestors of birds were
largely if not mainly animal-feeders, and thus the
young only go back, as in so many cases in nature,
to the early diet of the race. But just as even
among the reptiles there are some mainly vegetarian
kinds, such as some iguanas, the land- tortoises,

3 33

34 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

and some of the terrapins and turtles, so there are
certain families of birds, and sub-groups of other
families, which are mainly vegetarian in diet, as
implied above. Some of these groups are large
or important, and therefore well-known, such as
Parrots, Pigeons, Game-birds, Finches, Cranes, and
Geese ; among small and less familiar groups of
vegetable-eating proclivities are Ostriches and all
the other giant flightless birds — Emus, Cassowaries,
and Rheas, their relatives the Tinamous (the
" Partridges " of South America), the Seed-Snipes
(Tbinocorytbidtz), the Sand-Grouse, the Screamers
(Palamedeidtz), and among the less familiar perchers
the Touracous or Plantain- eaters (Musophagidte),
the Colies or Mouse-birds (Coliid&), and the
nectar-sucking Humming-birds.

Many if not all of these take more or less insect
or other animal food as well ; there seems to be no
group of any size so purely addicted to vegetable
food as certain of the animal-feeding families or
groups are to an animal 'diet. Such pure animal
*eeders are especially to be found among those
wnich take larger prey than insects, especially the
nsh-eaters ; Gannets, Cormorants, Pelicans, and the
Frigate- and Tropic-birds seem to be purely animal-
feeders, though the Gulls, and even the oceanic
Petrels, take some vegetable food.

The " birds of prey," as one would expect, are
generally purely carnivorous or insectivorous, though
some Vultures will eat fruit ; the South- American
Vultures feed on palm-fruits, and the Egyptian

ODDITIES IN DIET 35

Vulture will devour not only spoilt figs, as recorded
by Tristram, but even despoil date-trees of their
crop. So also among birds generally regarded as
purely insectivorous, Swallows in North America
are known to feed on the berry of the Wax- Myrtle
(Myrica cerifera) in autumn, and among the worm-
eating waders the Ruff and the Black-tailed Godwit
eagerly devour rice and other grain, such as wheat
and millet.

The Game-birds would perhaps be better regarded*
as omnivorous, like the Rails, and most fruit-eaters,
like Toucans and Hornbills, eat small animals
freely when they can catch them. The Barbets,
which seem to be the unspecialized ancestors of
the Toucans — if these really are a distinct family
at all — show a curious contrast in habit according
to their distribution, though all much alike in
structure ; the Asiatic species are mostly fruit-
eaters, while the African and South American species
are largely insectivorous. With the Trogons, which
have an equally wide distribution and are still
more alike structurally, matters are almost exactly
the other way about ; the old-world species, chiefly
to be found in Asia, though one or two are African,
being insectivorous, while the American kinds live
mainly on berries, which they gather on the wing.

One interesting point comes out from this con-
sideration of bird-diet, and that is, that the largest
birds, and those which, as groups, display the finest
plumage, are more or less vegetarian, while those
whose power of flight is pre-eminent range them-

36 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

selves in the animal-feeding section; though it
must be remembered also that a vast number of
insectivorous or mixed feeders have weak powers
of flight and very sedentary habits, such as the
host of small insectivorous birds resident permanently
in the tropics.

The majority of birds show little or no specializa-
tion for the purpose of food-getting ; that is to
say, one very generally cannot tell from the look
of a bird whether it lives mainly on animal or
vegetable food. For instance, Pigeons, as has been
said above, are mainly vegetarian, and Plovers are
chiefly worm- and insect-eaters ; yet the bills of
the two groups are singularly alike, and the vege-
table-eating Cranes are so like the animal-feeding
Storks and Herons that people who are not used to
birds constantly confuse them with each other.
Similarly, it is curious that the Parrots, some of the
strictest vegetarians, have bills more like those of
the very carnivorous Hawks and Owls than like
those of any other birds ; and when it comes to
the hosts of passerine birds with the ordinary
unspecialized type of beak, observation alone can
tell what their diet is.

There are, however, plenty of well-known and
conspicuous cases where structure and habit go
closely together ; to take a very familiar case, it is
easy to see that the thick, short conical bill of a
Finch is correlated with the habit of cracking seed-
husks, and the long pouch-bearing bill of a Pelican
is obviously especially adapted for catching fish.

* §

U o

O *o2

If

w ii

5 |

a •s

s «

FLAMINGOES.

The species here represented is the Common Flamingo, the only one found in Europe ; it
may generally be seen in the Bitter I<akes, by the Suez Canal.

[By permission of the artist, Sir Harry Johnston, G.C.M.G.

NETTING AND SIFTING 37

Few people, by the way, realize how a Pelican's bill
works ; it is not a fish-creel, but a dip-net ; when
the bird is fishing, the elastic branches of the lower
jaw expand into a great skin-floored spoon, and
scoop up the prey, contracting again when this is
captured.

The beautiful sifting-arrangement of rows of
horny plates along the bills of the typical Ducks is
one that can easily be seen in action, and it serves
for collecting not only animal but vegetable food
from water or mud ; in the grazing Geese and the
fishing Mergansers the ridges take the form of
teeth, since here biting rather than sifting is needed.
The perfection of the sifting apparatus is, as Dar-
win pointed out, found in the bill of the Shoveller
Duck, where the ridges almost equal in propor-
tionate length the whalebone of some of the whales ;
and the Shoveller seems consequently to be able to
extract nutriment from water in which the other
Ducks find " bibbling " unprofitable.

The simplest form of the ridge-row is to be
found, as might be expected, in the Magpie-Goose
above noted, in which it is hardly more pronounced
than the " burring," like that of the ends of a pair
of forceps, to be found in the beak of the Emu.
Nevertheless the Magpie-Goose " bibbles " like a
Duck, and does so habitually, unlike the true graz-
ing Geese, though these will use their grazing bills
in this way occasionally ; recently, in autumn, I
saw no less than four species of Geese, the Common,
Chinese, Canadian, and Bernicle, sifting in this

38 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

manner the water in the roadside gutters, filled
with dead leaves, on a wet afternoon in Hyde Park.
The Magpie-Goose, however, also grazes at times,
but is particularly fond of digging and tearing with
its bill at mud and roots, though I have so far not
been able quite to make out what it gets when thus
engaged.

It will be noticed that the Common Duck, with
its specialized bill, keeps up the varied methods of
feeding noted in this primitive-looking relative,
though the Shoveller has practically become a
sifter pure and simple. The diving Ducks, al-
though having a sifting beak, seem to use it very
little, for when one watches them feeding in clear
water they seem to simply pick up their food from
the bottom, darting hither and thither, and not
working away in the same place. Small portions
they can swallow below the surface, but have to
come up with a large mouthful, such as a water-
snail. Such molluscs form a large proportion of
the food of Ducks and other water-birds, and
land-shells, as all know, are eaten by land-birds,
though generally these are small specimens which
are eaten whole, the Song-Thrush being exceptional
in its habit of dashing large specimens on stones
in order to chip off their shells and prepare them
for food.

There are several other kinds of specialized
mollusc-eaters, notably the shell-eating Storks of
the genus Anastomus, called " Open-bills " from
the fact that their beaks gape in the middle in

DUCKS AND FLAMINGOES 39

adults ; of these there is a black African species
and a pied Asiatic one. These birds have a fringe
of horny growths towards the tip of the beak, at
any rate in adults (for they are absent in the young
of the Asiatic kind) ; and this renders the peculiarity
of the sifting structure of the Duck's bill being
repeated in the Flamingoes of less value as an
evidence of affinity.

Indeed, although many of the less-informed
naturalists seem to regard the Flamingoes as simply
Roman-nosed Ducks on stilts, anatomists find them
to be more closely related to the Storks ; and their
bibbling performances, though similar in principle
to those of the Ducks, are carried on with a curious
difference in detail. In the Ducks the bill has the
upper jaw far the larger, the lower fitting within
it ; in the Flamingoes the bill is constructed in
just the opposite way — the lower jaw being so much
deeper than the upper that the latter simply is to it
as the lid of a box, or in some species shuts within
its edges. Being also very freely moveable, it plays
like the lower jaw of the Duck, and acts as such,
for the Flamingo feeds with its bill upside down,
as many must have observed at zoological gardens
where these most interesting birds are kept.

Judging from their behaviour there, they can
extract food from water which affords nothing to
the Ducks — except perhaps Shovellers — and this,
added to their habit of frequenting salt-lakes,
avoided by most other birds, is no doubt a great
asset in the struggle for existence to these unprolific

4o BIRD BEHAVIOUR

and very helpless creatures. Like Ducks, they eat
both animal and vegetable food, and in captivity
eat and thrive on such an unnatural diet as grain.
In both Ducks and Flamingoes the sifting apparatus
is found along the edges of both jaws, but in some
of the Petrels there is found a similar structure for
extracting food suspended in water which still more
recalls that of the whalebone whales, in which the
so-called " bone " (which is really horn) is confined
to the upper jaw, by being similarly limited to the
upper bill.

These Petrels, called Whale-birds by sailors,
belong to the genus Prion of naturalists ; they are
small birds about as big as Doves, of a pigeon-blue
colour, and display a beautiful gradation from a
bill which is quite ordinary except for the ridges
visible in it when opened to one which is so bulged
out at the sides, and has such long fringes, that the
caricature of a whale's head is at once obvious.
Yet the species are so closely related that it is quite
difficult to separate them, so that here is evidently
a case where evolution is comparatively recent and
has not resulted in any decided differentiation.

To return to the subject of mollusc- eating birds,
from which we have been led by the consideration
of these fringed-billed birds, whose " dentition," if
we may use the expression, is just as worthy of study
as the true teeth of beasts or reptiles ; we find in
the Oyster-Catchers (H&matopus) which, some pied
like our own, and some black, haunt sea-coasts
nearly everywhere, a special weapon for getting to

EXPERIMENTAL BORINGS 41

terms with shellfish in a very hard, chisel- tipped
bill, strikingly different from the soft weak bills
of the majority of the Snipe family (Charadnidtz)
to which they so obviously belong by the rest of
their structure. With this they can prise limpets
off the rocks, and adroitly chisel out the meat of
other shellfish, while at the same time the tool is
an efficient weapon as well, like the axe in the hands
of early man, and nest-robbing Gulls and Crows
find the Oyster-Catcher's home a difficult proposi-
tion to tackle.

The most typical bills in the Snipe family have a
beautiful adaptation to the " Diet of Worms " ;
in the Woodcock and other typical Snipes the bill
is " overshot," that is to say, the upper jaw dis-
tinctly exceeds the lower in length, and has a
knobbed tip somewhat like the end of a crochet-
hook, behind which the lower jaw fits accurately,
so that the bill can be driven into the mud or soft
ground with ease. At the same time the bill is
so soft and sensitive that when the bird has been
dead a little time the end is seen to be pitted like
a thimble by the shrinkage of the covering skin
owing to the drying of the soft nerve-tissue within,
and the upper jaw is so flexible that the bill will
open at the tip and remain closed for the rest of its
length. Thus it can grip a worm when felt without
the necessity of being opened entirely, which would
be a difficult matter for a bird of this size ; the
worm when seized is, so to speak, nibbled up, not
dropped down the throat with a^jerk of the uplifted

42 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

head, as is so often seen to be done in the feeding
of long-billed birds. At the same time, so that the
bird can keep a look about it when its bill is driven
into the soil, the eyes are situated far back in the
head, reminding one of the similar shifting back of
the eyes in the most highly developed grazing
beasts, such as horses and cattle, though here the
necessity for deep-rooting molars is given as the
reason.

Structure and function correspond very closely in
the Snipe group ; for instance, the Common Snipe
(Scolopax gallinago) and its East Asiatic ally the
Pintail Snipe (S. sUnura), which are exceedingly
alike in size and plumage — the curious narrow
feathers in the tail of the latter not being noticeable
till looked for — can be quite easily separated by
the difference in the bill, expanded at the tip in
the common species, and of uniform calibre in the
Pintail ; and their habits correspond, the Common
Snipe being mainly a mud-feeder and worm-
catcher, while the other often feeds on dry ground
and has a more varied menu, including land-insects
and land-shells to a great extent. Through the
Sandpipers of different sorts a gradation can be
traced from these specialized bills to the short
pigeon-like ones of the Plovers, with their normally
placed eyes. Yet these are also worm-eaters and
borers to some extent, so that here, as in the case
of the Duck tribe, we can trace the evolution of
structure and habit most satisfactorily.

Two or three interesting little off-shoots of this

THE TURNSTONE AT ITS TRADE 43

family of mudlarks need noticing. The Turnstone
(Strepsilas interpret), well known on all coasts in
the winter, is a thick-set little bird with a plain,
short, straight, hard beak, in which the only notice-
able point is the very straight profile. It is a beak
which at first sight seems only suitable for ordinary
pecking, and is often used for this, but the bird
derives its name from the unusual habit of turning
over stones and other objects in search of the
creatures which shelter beneath them. Mr. Barnby
Smith has recorded in the Am cultural Magazine
his experiences with two captive birds of this species ;
these he found could turn over a weight of as
much as half a pound, a big feat of strength for a
bird not larger than a Song-Thrush, and Edwards,
the well-known cobbler-naturalist of Banff shire,
saw three combine to try to upset a dead cod-fish
which was too heavy for one to manage alone.

An opposite case to that of this widely-ranging
and versatile bird is found in the extraordinary
little Wry-billed Plover of New Zealand (Ana-
rhyncbus frontalis), which is unique among birds in
having its bill bent to the right side, an adaptation,
it is said, to a habit of searching for food around
stones, and always running in one direction ; it
is well figured, and its peculiarities described in
the second edition of Buller's " Birds of New
Zealand."

Then, among the very small Sandpipers known
as Stints, we get the unique Spoon-billed Stint
(Eurynorbyncbus fygmezus) of Eastern Asia, a rare

44 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

bird with a bill expanded at the tip like a miniature
Spoonbill's, and presumably used in much the same
way, i.e. for sifting as a Duck does.

The true Spoonbills, by the way, are nearly
related to the Ibises, and in India our British species,
which is well known there, is called Spoon-Ibis
(Chamach Buza) — a creditable tribute to the un-
taught native's discrimination in classification ;
our European ornithologists have generally put the
Spoonbills in a family by themselves, though they
are so near the curve-billed Ibises that a Spoonbill-
Ibis hybrid was bred some years ago at the Berlin
Zoo. The Curlews, which are so often confused
with the Ibises, are simply large Sandpipers with
the beak modified into the same bow-shaped form
as that of an Ibis. The Curlews, however, simply
probe for food, without the lateral sweeping action
so noticeable in Ibises.

Curved or bowed bills are common among
passerine birds, and are often employed in different
ways ; the use of such a bill as a probe is familiar
in our tiny Tree-creeper (Certhia familiaris), which
investigates the bark of trees by its aid ; but there
are also other Creepers with straight bills, and the
group grades into the strong-billed Nuthatches,
whose beaks are powerful hammers ; a Nuthatch
hews like a Woodpecker, and splits his nut with a
powerful swing of the whole body from the hock,
having first fixed the nut in a crevice to give a
purchase and keep it steady.

Some of the social Thrush-like Babblers in the

PICK-AXES AND PROBES 45

East also have the bow-bill, and no doubt this is
often used as a probe ; but on keeping some speci-
mens of the Rusty-cheeked Babbler (Pomatorhinus
erythrogenys) in India in a small aviary with a
deep bed of sand on the floor which had become
hardened, I was astonished to find them vigorously
using their long curved beaks as pick- axes, digging
up the ground as if a corps of pigmy navvies had
worked at it. The beak is evidently adapted for
much wear and tear, as I found on buying these
birds that in some it was much overgrown from
want of use, and had to be cut back.

But the most remarkable beak found among
insectivorous birds is that of the Huia of New
Zealand (Heteralocha acutirostris) ; not so much
from the peculiarity of the bill itself, as because
of its different shape and use in the two sexes, a
phenomenon unknown elsewhere among vertebrate
animals, since, however different the sexes may be
in general appearance, their means of obtaining food
are practically identical. But in the Huia, although
the plumage and size are identical in both sexes, the
beaks are as different as those of a Woodpecker and
a Tree-creeper, the male having a strong, straight
digging bill of moderate length, and the hen a
long, curved, slender, probing one, twice as long
as her husband's pick- axe.

The late Sir Walter Buller, in his admirable
book on the birds of New Zealand, tells us how he
was able to study the actual use of their very diverse
bills by these birds. He had a pair brought to

46 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

him by a Maori, and turned them loose into a
small room. Here he provided them with decayed
logs infested with the boring grubs of a beetle
(Prionoplus reticularis), which forms an important
part of the Huia's natural food. The birds were
tame, and he could easily watch them at work — the
male chiselling and hacking at the rotten wood, and
the hen probing the beetle-burrows where this was
too hard for him to cut it away. When, after
pecking away at the wood, the male Huia still
failed to reach his prey, the hen would come and
pull it out with her longer forceps, but, although she
had availed herself of his preliminary work, she
always ate herself everything she thus got ; be-
haviour apparently selfish, but, as we shall see later,
quite normal among hen birds.

The two nevertheless were much attached to
each other, and this seems the character of the
species ; there is even in Buller's book a figure of
a hen Huia whose upper bill, by some accident or
natural deformity, had grown into the shape of a
corkscrew, so that it can hardly have got enough
food to support life naturally (although the Huia
eats berries as well as insects) and had evidently
been fed for a long time by a devoted mate.

In this case the hen evidently has the more speci-
alized and recent type of bill, and those of the
young of both sexes resemble the male's ; and
curiously enough, New Zealand presents us with
yet another case of female specialization in the case
of the local species of Sheldrake (C as arc a variegata)

II

ri

1 1

O v

> 5

1

O a
in o

S^

W -*

II

AN ADVANCED DUCK 47

called "Paradise Duck" in that country; in this
the plumage is affected, the drake being a dark
grey with a greenish-black head, while the duck is
mostly chestnut- red with a snow-white one, and is
thus far more striking and conspicuous, though not
quite so large as her mate. As in the other case,
her daughters confirm the pedigree by resembling
their more sombre-tinted father in their first
plumage, attaining their feminine plumage later on.

Readers will be reminded of the similar case in
human hair, which is short in babies of both sexes,
but afterwards tends to grow longer in women
than in men, though the general habit of cutting
the men's hair makes the difference seem artificial.

The Huia, which in size and shape is not unlike
a Jay, was always a bird of limited range, and never
found in the South Island ; it is now very local,
and it is to be hoped that the State restrictions on
the capture of the peculiar birds of New Zealand
will be successful in preserving it — without some-
thing of the sort it would soon have been exter-
minated " in the cause of science."

Next to the Huia, the bird which shows most
sexual difference in the bill is the Capercailzie, so
well known to Scottish sportsmen and a common
object in our poulterers' shops in the winter ; and
here there is a possible explanation in a different
manner of feeding in the two sexes. The cock
has a much larger and more hooked bill than the
hen, even in proportion to his far greater size ;
in fact his bill looks more like that of a bird of

48 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

prey than a game-bird. Now, the cock tastes far
more of turpentine than the hen, and he is known
to feed more on pine and fir-shoots, his mate,
with her small ordinary game-bird's beak, seeking
her food more upon the ground.

This brings us to the consideration of vegetable -
feeding birds ; but in the case of these there is
seldom much modification of the bill, nearly all the
sensational beaks, if we may thus express it, belong-
ing to animal-feeding birds. There is, however, a
very peculiar specialized beak in a bird which, like
the Capercailzie, is especially a haunter of coniferous
woods, and derives its food from them — the Cross-
bill, in other respects a very ordinary member of
the group of Finches. In this bird, often a winter
visitor here, and one which has of late years bred
quite frequently in Britain, the beak is crossed at
the tip, both jaws being curved ; the jaws may
cross either to the right or the left, and this crossing
is quite accidental or indifferent, having nothing
to do with sex.

The young Crossbill has, up to the time of
leaving the nest, the ordinary Finch- beak shutting
evenly ; presumably the direction of the crossing
depends on the nestling being right- or left- beaked,
i.e. using its beak instinctively more on one side
than another. The particular use of the bill is to
prise open the scales of pine- and fir-cones, the
underlying seeds of which form the Crossbill's
favourite food, and are scooped out by the tongue,
which is unusually long for a bird of this group.

TOUCANS IN EVOLUTION 49

The most striking beaks found among vegetable-
feeding birds are of course those of the Toucans
and Hornbills, groups which are constantly confused
by people unacquainted with birds, and very
naturally, since both are so conspicuously over-
beaked, so to speak, that the differences between
them are quite over-shadowed by their resemblance
in the prominent feature, and their general habits
are also much alike, both groups being tree-haunters
and fruit-eaters, though they take animal food as
well. The Hornbills, however, have three toes in
front and one behind, the front ones being more
or less connected in a common skin, as in Kingfishers,
to which they seem to have some affinity ; the
Toucans have their toes in pairs, like Woodpeckers,
with which they are closely connected by the
intermediate family of Barbets (Capitonida). In
fact a very interesting evolutionary exhibit might
be made up by any museum possessing plenty of
specimens of all three families, so as to show the
gradation from the Woodpeckers into the Wrynecks,
the Barbets with their Crow-like or in some cases
almost Wryneck-like bills, and the very unbroken
series of Toucans, ranging from forms like the
Toucanets (Selenidera), which, in bill and body,
hardly exceed the biggest Barbets, of the genus
Megal&ma, to the great black, enormous-billed birds
of the genus Rbampbastos, the most typical Toucans
of all.

In the Hornbills there is no gradation into an-
other family altogether, but there is much difference

4

So BIRD BEHAVIOUR

between the small Magpie-sized Hornbills of the
genus Tockus, with little or no " top-story " to the
bill, to the large typical Hornbills, often as big as
hen Turkeys, with enormous bills generally crowned
with a great horny excrescence. The smaller kinds
are more insectivorous than the larger, and thus
show some approach to the Wood-Hoopoes (Irrisor),
which have much more curved bills than the ordinary
Hoopoes, and feed when on trees, while the common
Hoopoes are ground-feeders.

It has been well suggested that the great bills of
the larger Hornbills and Toucans are adapted to
giving a purchase for wrenching off tough-stalked
fruit ; as the birds grew bigger, too, they would
not be able to venture on such slender branches,
and so would need more to reach out for their food.
And if the beak had got merely longer without
acquiring bulk, any wrenching effort would have
been liable to dislocate it. That Hornbills at any
rate work their beaks very hard may be inferred
from the facts that in the largest and bulkiest-beaked
kinds the edges of the jaws are worn and chipped
in elderly specimens, and that if the fruit will
not come away by fair means, some Hornbills think
nothing of throwing themselves bodily off the
bough and wrenching it away by sheer weight. No
doubt the effort of recovering their perch in
gymnastic exercises like this is what gives these
particularly awkward-looking birds the deftness on
the wing which many people must have observed
when watching them catch in the air grapes or other

RHINOCEROS HORNBILLS.

Two lorms are shown here, the true Buceros rhinoceros, and the straight-horned Buceros.

sylvestris.

50

HANDICAPPING HELMETS 51

food thrown to them in the aviaries in zoological
gardens.

Even the biggest and most specialized Hornbills
and Toucans like animal food, though the ' horn "
of the former must often baulk them in obtaining
prey from crevices and holes ; for I once had a
narrow escape from a nasty dig in the face from a
Concave-casqued Hornbill (Dichoceros bicornis) con-
fined in a hutch in the Calcutta Bird Market;
about half the bill passed between the wooden bars,
but the broad helmet acted as an efficient " stop "
and spoilt the stroke. Buffon was often fanciful
in his remarks on animal structure, but I fancy he
was right when he referred to the " horns " of the
Hornbills as an actual hindrance in food-getting.
It would be interesting to know whether the great
helmet only developed after the birds had become
more definitely fruit-eaters, or whether the in-
convenience of possessing it tended to develop their
diet in that direction.

There is probably, however, some connection
between the adoption of a vegetable diet and large
size, for nearly all the biggest birds are either
vegetable- or carrion-feeders, i.e. eat food which
does not require mobility to obtain it, and can be
obtained in bulk if at all, so that, if the digestion
permits its assimilation, size is favoured and tends
to increase.

Reverting to the Woodpecker- Barbet-Toucan
alliance, it is interesting to note that the Wood-
peckers in spite of their specialization for grub-

52 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

hunting under tree-bark, are in many cases fruit-
eaters ; our own Greater Spotted Woodpecker, for
instance, eats several kinds of fruit, and in North
America the Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes
erytbrocepbalus) used at any rate to have a very bad
name as a fruit- eater, even going so far as to go off
with an apple spiked on its bill when leaving the
orchard, so says Wilson ; and one has even special-
ized in a most peculiar vegetable food, the cambium
or inner bark of trees and their sap. This is the
Sapsucker (Spbyrapicus varius) of North America,
which is often quite a pest by its trick of girdling
fruit-trees with its rows of punctures made to ex-
tract the sap. The worst of it is that its name and
bad reputation have got transferred to other small
Woodpeckers ; just as among us the comparatively
harmless Kestrel often has to suffer for the misdeeds
of the Sparrow-hawk, which really is an inveterate
bird-killer, not confining its ravages by any means
to Sparrows, but tackling anything from a Blue- tit
to a Woodpigeon, so that in its game-list the
chicks of Pheasants and Fowls are quite naturally
included.

I have spoken of the specialization of the Wood-
pecker's bill for grub-hunting, but this is not very
striking at first sight, and the degree to which the
tip of the bill is formed like a chisel is somewhat
variable ; it is the hardness of texture that is the
important point, and the skill of the bird in using
its tool. The Great Black Wroodpecker has been
seen in captivity to chip two parallel grooves down

CROWS AS WOODCUTTERS 53

an upright post and then prise out the intervening
piece, thus going to work in quite a systematic way.
It is of interest to find that in the unspecialized
Barbets the power of wood-cutting occurs, though
apparently only used for hewing out the nest-
hole ; but the state of the back of the cage in
which a Great Barbet was confined at the Zoo was
ample evidence that this bird's powers in this
respect are considerable, though the beak is merely
Crow-like.

The Crows themselves, however, with their
usual versatility, can do a good deal in the way of
wood-cutting with their stout bills ; Mr. J. Fros-
tick, of Balham, once showed me a Carrion-crow
he kept as a pet, and its cage afforded ample evidence
of the wood-cutting proclivities of its inmate ; and
readers of " Barnaby Rudge " will be familiar with
the feat of one of Dickens' s real Ravens whose bio-
graphies are described in the introduction, though
the amount of damage done to the " six stairs and
a landing," which he " tore up and swallowed in
splinters " is of course humorously exaggerated.

The greatest power of wood-cutting is, however,
as every one knows, to be seen in Parrots ; it is
perhaps for this that their very peculiar bills became
so specialized in hardness, shortness, and power,
for they mostly build in holes in trees, and are
not averse to making holes, either in trees or cliffs,
for themselves. Besides, many of them are grub-
eaters, and cut away wood in order to obtain their
prey, quite taking the place of Woodpeckers in the

54 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

Australian region, where these otherwise universally
distributed birds are absent.

The chief grub- eaters are the Black Cockatoos
(Calyptorhynchus) of Australia and the curious New
Zealand Parrots known as Kakas (Nestor) ; but the
habit is probably commoner than is supposed, since
most Parrots in captivity evince a liking for animal
food, although too much of this is bad for them,
often causing a skin-irritation and the adoption of
the feather-plucking habit: This, however, has
probably more to do with the want of exercise.

It seems improbable that the Parrots should have
developed their extraordinary deep-curved bill,
unique among vertebrates in its hinged upper jaw
and extreme biting power, merely to feed on seeds
and fruit, and it is noteworthy that the Parrot
which has the least typical beak, Pesquet's Parrot
of New Guinea (Dasyptilus pesgueti), in which the
upper jaw at any rate is more like an Eagle's than
a Parrot's, tears at its food of fruit like a carnivorous
bird at flesh, and also has less Parrot-like movements
than the rest of its tribe, hopping from bough to
bough with a flicking action of the wings — evidently
it has not fully attained the Parrot specialization in
form or action, and corresponds among the Parrots
to the Magpie-Goose among the Ducks.

The White Cockatoos, which are generally
ground- feeders, use their bills much in digging up
bulbs and the egg-cases of locusts ; in the Long-
nosed Cockatoos (Licmetis), which are especially
addicted to a diet of roots, the upper bill is par-

LYRE-BIRDS (MALE AND FEMALE).

Thel^yre-bird is the largest of singing-birds, and is one of the few birds which shows
decorative plumage without brilliant colours.

[Copyright, Hutchinson & Co.

54

IMPERIAL WOODPECKERS.

This American bird is the largest of the Woodpeckers, and shows the rare peculiarity of
the female's crest being longer than the male's.

SCRATCHERS AND SEIZERS 55

ticularly prolonged and forms a most effective hoe.
Another hoeing genus, in a very different family, is
that of the Monauls (Lopbopborus) among the game-
birds, best-known in the person of the splendid
" Impeyan Pheasant " ; this bird will continue
hoeing by the hour, in search of roots and grubs,
and scratches very little, although belonging to a
group which are particularly characterized by
using the feet in this way in search of food.

In fact, the Game-birds used to be known by the
general title of Rasores or scratchers, and every one
knows what execution they can do in this way.
Their scratching instinct and capacity, in fact, is
no doubt one of their strongest assets in the struggle
for existence ; the habit is not a common one among
birds when applied to food-getting, though it crops
up again amongst the Passerines ; the Whydah-
birds among the Finches, for instance, are scratchers,
and so is our Bearded Reedling. The Lyre-bird
(Menura superb a), too, is a most powerful scratcher ;
indeed, it actually grips clods and throws them
back, shifting masses of as much as seven pounds in
weight, although not bigger than a Fowl.

The feet, however, are only employed in actually
seizing food in the birds of prey — Hawks, Eagles,
and Owls — and in these are specialized for the
purpose, being armed, as every one knows, with
particularly long and sharp claws, and having a
most powerful grip, at least in the typical forms.
There are some interesting minor specializations
among these birds ; thus, the especially bird-

56 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

killing kinds, such as Sparrow-hawks and Falcons,
have very long toes and talons, to give the greatest
chance of a grip on an elusive prey seized on the
wing. The Falcons usually strike from above, and
often kill the prey, when brought down by the
talons, with the beak ; the Sparrow-hawks chase
and clutch, and kill more slowly by their relentless

grip-
Rep tile- eating Hawks and Eagles have, on the

other hand, particularly short toes, adapted to the
usually narrow bodies of their prey, and fish-eaters,
of which the Osprey is of course the most typical,
have the underside of the toes roughened with
little spikes, to give them a secure grip of their
slippery quarry. It will be noticed that the Sea-
Eagles and the great Fishing-Owls of the East
(Scotopelia in Africa, and Ketupa in Asia) have
ordinary bare legs, adapted to immersion, whereas
ordinary Owls and most of the hunting Eagles are
feather-legged. The adaptation here is, however,
probably special only in the case of the Owls, for
Hawks, which are seldom fishers, are generally
bare-legged, as is also the great Harpy-Eagle
(Thrasaetus harpy ia), which has far the most power-
ful feet of all the birds of prey, the toes being as
thick as a man's thumb, and the claws as big as a
bear's.

The strength of these birds is something enor-
mous, and in proportion to their size is greater than
that of the quadruped carnivora ; the Goshawk, a
giant Sparrow-hawk, can if a strong female (this sex

THE PROWESS OF EAGLES 57

being the larger in birds of prey generally, and especi-
ally in this typical Hawk group) actually hold and
kill a hare, a creature several times its own weight ;
and the Indian River-Eagle (Haliaetus leucoryphus),
a lighter and less powerful bird than the Golden
Eagle, can not only carry off a Greylag Goose, but
has been known to strike, lift, and land a fish of a
stone in weight, though this quarry taxed its powers
to the uttermost, and it could not raise it again
when frightened by a shot. In cases like this the
impetus of the swoop no doubt counts for a great
deal.

As for the Golden Eagle, it can even master the
wolf, a beast not only far heavier than itself, but
terribly armed to boot with most punishing teeth ;
it is habitually flown at this quarry by Mongolian
magnates, but many birds meet their fate in learn-
ing their trade, for after the first grip with one
foot is made good, the bird must be quick and
dexterous in grappling the beast's face with the
other foot to avoid fatal reprisals. The cases in
which birds of prey have been found killed by
animals of the weasel kind which they had seized
are evidently examples of nature's penalty on the
bungler, and no doubt exemplify a powerful check
on these birds, which otherwise would have few
casualties to face except in encounters with each
other.

The great Owls are not inferior in relative power
and ferocity to the Eagles ; a Snowy Owl kept in
captivity in Shetland, according to the account of

58 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

Saxby, in his book on the birds of that country,
once seized upon a cat, and held it in such a powerful
grip that had not puss been rescued in time it
would have succeeded in its amiable intention of
biting her head off.

In contrast to these powerful and ferocious
species, we find many birds of prey which feed
largely on insects, such as the Hobby and Kestrel
among the Falcons, and the little Scops Owls
among the nocturnal birds of prey ; in both cases
the insectivorous forms being closely allied to highly
carnivorous ones, for the Hobby is very like a
miniature of the arch-bird-killer, the Peregrine,
and the Scops Owls are only distinguished by size
from the particularly powerful and savage Eagle-
Owls of the genus Bubo.

Among birds of prey a very near approach to
cannibalism occurs in the Barred Owl of North
America (Syrnium nebulosum), which has an un-
enviable reputation for devouring its smaller rela-
tives ; and the Peregrine Falcon frequently preys
on the Kestrel. However, this habit is more widely
spread than might perhaps be supposed ; the great
carrion- eating Petrel known by sailors as the " Nelly "
(Ossifraga gigantea) remorselessly devours the
smaller Petrels, and the Skua Gull or Bonxie feeds
on the Kittiwake Gull. Moreover, the Shrikes,
some of which are every bit as carnivorous as the
Hawks, are only passerine birds, so when they
prey on Finches and Thrushes they also are eating
ne.ar relatives ; the Shrike in fact is but a song-

CROWS AS EXPERIMENTERS 59

bird modified into a bird of prey, and even yet
" mislodging music in a pitiless breast." Unlike
the typical true birds of prey, however, it seizes
with the bill, not the feet, which differ little from
those of ordinary passerine birds.

The foot-grasping habit is so rooted in most of
the birds of prey proper that even the insectivorous
ones catch their small prey with the feet ; it is a
common and absurd sight in India when the white-
ants or termites are swarming, to see such big
birds as Kites (Milvus govinda) catching these tiny
things in their raptorial talons, with which they can
grip and carry off a rat.

There are, however, cases in which the adapta-
tion here is not complete ; the Caracara Hawk of
America (Polyborus iharus), though seizing birds on
the wing with the feet — a feat it seldom performs,
by the way — picks up ground-prey with its beak,
afterwards transferring it to the feet when in
flight, as Mr. Hudson informs us. I have seen the
Indian Crow (Corvus splendent) thus transfer an
object from bill to feet, as if he wanted to learn
the Kite's trick of foot-carrying ; but the object
was not food — the Crow is too practical to experi-
ment with anything so valuable, and a bit of stick
or dry cow-dung was the subject of the experiment.

Some very curious specializations in the feeding
habits of birds of prey deserve mention here ; those
of the Snail - Hawk (Rostrhamus sociabilis) and
Bird's - nesting Eagle (Neopus malayensis). The
Snail-Hawk is a Buzzard-like, brown bird with a

60 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

very long hook to the beak and long talons ; it
feeds chiefly on water-snails of the genus Ampullaria,
very common in shallow pond-edges in the tropics,
but, one would think, very queer food for a Hawk.
The long hook of the bill and long talons may be
adapted for winkle-pin and shell-grippers respec-
tively, but from what will be said directly it is
possible that the adaptation may be only apparent.

The ways of the Bird's-nesting Eagle are still
more strange. This species, from South-eastern
Asia, has black plumage and a most peculiar foot,
with the claws very long except on the outer front
toe, which is quite dwarfed. Its habit is to sail
over the tree-tops looking for the nests of small
birds, which when found it carries off in its long
claws, meanwhile ransacking them for the eggs and
young, on which it makes its meal in mid- air.

Eating on the wing, by the way, is quite a
common accomplishment with birds of prey which
capture light quarry ; it was quite the usual thing
in Calcutta to see a Kite sailing overhead and
tearing at something held in its talons. Once one
dropped a bullock's eye almost on me, having no
doubt found the tough morsel non-negotiable.

Better known than the Snail- Hawk and the
Bird's-nester is the Secretary-bird of Africa, which
is, indeed, one of the best known of all birds of
prey. Most people are familiar with its quaint
appearance, as of an Eagle on stilts (I can never see
why it should ever have been called the Secretary
Vulture) ; the short toes should, however, be

THE SECRETARY AND SNAKES 61

noted, and the method of attacking prey, which
the keepers at the Zoo will always display with the
aid of a dead rat tied to a string. It will be noted
that the bird strikes on the prey to kill it, and
does not grasp, using one foot at a time, and so
quickly that it gets in two or three blows where
a man could only give one ; in fact, I am told that
the bird will even kill blue-bottles in this way.
The wings are kept lifted meanwhile, no doubt in
readiness to spring back if the victim retaliates.
But in its conflicts with snakes, which have gained it
so much notoriety and the protection of our Govern-
ment in Africa, it is said to bring the wings into
action to beat the reptile down. Its prey, how-
ever, is not restricted to snakes, but includes any
sort of ground animal it can find and kill ; in fact,
Major J. Stevenson-Hamilton, the Game Warden of
the Transvaal, says in his fascinating book " Animal
Life in Africa," that it is neither more nor less of a
snake- eater than other large birds of prey, so that
we cannot regard its peculiar specialization as
being an adaptation to a reptilian diet.

In fact, we may easily make mistakes in trying to
correlate structure and function, as may be realized
in considering the case of the Kea Parrot (Nestor
notabilis) of New Zealand. Notable, indeed, this
bird is, not to say notorious, but not in the way
its describer meant when he gave it its scientific
name. Every one knows now that it has undergone
one of the most remarkable changes of habit ever
recorded of any animal. Formerly a feeder on

62 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

roots, berries, grubs, etc., it soon after the intro-
duction of sheep into its haunts in the New Zealand
Alps became a most cruel and destructive carnivore,
with a ghoulish appetite for live mutton, attacking
the sheep at the loins and eating deeply into their
flesh. It was at first credited with the desire of
devouring the kidneys or the fat surrounding
them, but this view appears to be a mistake, the
locality of attack being merely the part where the
unhappy sheep had no chance of dislodging its
tormentor. Of course so extraordinary a habit as
this fell under the ban of museum scepticism, but
it has been proved up to the hilt. Rewards are
paid for the killing of these birds, and, unlike all
other New Zealand birds except the Weka Rail
(which is destructive to eggs and chickens), it may
be sent out of the country. It is a curious thing,
however, that specimens sent to the London Zoo
soon give up the habit of eating meat and feed on
the ordinary seed and other vegetable food given
to Parrots ; one lived there some years chiefly on
carrots, thus reverting to its natural diet of roots.

This would seem to indicate that hunger was
the first incentive to the change of diet ; the in-
satiable inquisitiveness and destructiveness which are
very characteristic of these Parrots would be quite
sufficient incentive for them to attack dead sheep
and offal, which they did before transferring their
attentions, in a natural sequence, to the living
animals. They have been known to attack a horse,
and the corpse of a man killed by a fall in the

EAGLE ATTACKING MAN 63

mountains has also been mutilated by them, so
that under certain circumstances of helplessness
by accident or illness, they might easily become
dangerous, just as rats are in similar circumstances.
< It is rare, however, for any birds to attack man
for food ; still, this would seem to be the motive
for the attacks made on men in the water by Alba-
trosses, as in the case where these sea-birds attacked
the German sailors in the sea at our defeat of
German ships in the sea-fight off the Falklands ;
and no one with any wide knowledge of birds could
doubt that Eagles probably were in former times,
when they were more common and fire-arms less
so, very serious enemies to children.

It must be remembered that only a very few
years ago a case was recorded in the Field in which
a Golden Eagle attacked an adult in Scotland,
though in this case the motive was apparently
revenge, as the man, a gamekeeper, had rescued a
Grouse from it earlier on the same day. Hassel-
quist, also, in his " Travels in the Levant," published
in the eighteenth century, credits an Owl, which he
calls Strix orientalis, but which is apparently only
the Common Barn- Owl from his description and
attribution to it of building- haunting habits, with
coming into houses in Syria at night, and destroying
babies if not carefully watched.

I may say that on taking a little boy of two years
old with his parents to see the Owls at the Zoo
some years ago I noticed that all the large Eagle-
Owls abandoned their usual apathetic unseeing

64 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

stare, and glared down earnestly at the child ; and
though I could not understand this at the time, on
finding Hasselquist's note it struck me that a
child-killing Owl might not be at all an impos-
sibility.

To return to the Kea ; Smith Woodward has
suggested, in Mivart's book on birds, that these
Parrots used in the days of the existence of the
great Emu-like Moas in New Zealand to attack
and vivisect these now extinct birds in the same
manner as their descendants now do the introduced
sheep ; and the possibility of this must of course
be borne in mind. The large struthious birds at
the present day seem peculiarly helpless against
the attacks of smaller birds ; in the Calcutta Zoo
Crows have lined a nest of feathers pecked from the
back of an Emu, and have pecked sores on the backs
of Ostriches. This did not happen in my time,
but I have seen a Crow sit on the back of an Ostrich
and peck it.

If the Kea were thus always more or less carni-
vorous, its peculiarities would be easily understood ;
it is, as a matter of fact, in gait and movements
much more like a Raven than a Parrot, running
freely, and hopping frequently, while it is said
often to sail on outspread wings when in flight.
Its beak also, very long for a Parrot's and with a
comparatively gentle curve of the upper jaw, and
its comparatively long legs, with its very dull
olive-green plumage, suggest a carnivorous bird
rather than a Parrot ; but after all, these peculiarities

CHANGES IN FEEDING 65

may simply be due to its being, like the eagle-
billed Pesquet's Parrot, an unspecialized early form.
Its reversion to a vegetable diet in captivity may
point the same way ; in any case it is instructive
to notice, that, unspecialized as it is, its beak has
at any rate a good share of typical Parrot power,
judging by its exploits in the way of gnawing wood.
I have also seen, when a couple were kept in a
cage in the indoor parrot-house at the Zoo, one
cracking canary-seed, while the other amused itself
by levering up the perch in the next cage hard
alongside, for the discomfiture of the inmates.

The Kea's is not only the most notorious, but
really the most remarkable change of diet known ;
but minor changes are often recorded, and though
these are often brought about by man's interference
in producing a new food-supply or in transporting
birds from one country to another, they must not
be despised as unworthy of study on that account,
since in undisturbed Nature the equilibrium we
hear so much about is not constant. Birds colonize
areas on their own initiative occasionally, and
plants even invade new habitats as circumstances
become more favourable for them, so that there
are always opportunities for changes of diet.

Mr. Hudson has recorded how, since the giant
grasses of the Argentine pampas have given place
to the turf-making grasses and clovers of Europe,
the Chaja or Crested Screamer (Cbauna ckavaria),
which used to feed on water-plants, has taken to
grazing on land ; it is a curious thing that the

5

66 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

fowl-like beak of this bird looks much more suitable
for such a diet than for aquatic herbage, for which
the broad bills of Swans and Ducks are better
fitted ; and in fact the most purely terrestrial
Geese show a great reduction in the size of the beak
compared with the rest of the family. So that, as
in the case of the Kea, the new habit seems quite
in conformity with the structure.

It has been noted in New Zealand, also, that the
native Pigeon (Carpophaga nova-zealandice), natur-
ally purely a tree-bird and a feeder on berries and
buds, has been found feeding on the ground in
rape-fields ; and a similar change has very probably
taken place in the habits of our Wood-Pigeon,
which in the primitive state .of Europe was probably
rnuch more exclusively a feeder on tree-produce
than it is to-day, when the grain and root-crops,
and the clover of the meadows, tempt it to feed
a great deal on the ground ; here it can be seen
to be not quite in its element, for it is far less quick
in walking than the common Pigeon, a true ground-
feeder, and seems not to be able to run, always
taking wing when pressed.

The Wood-Pigeon, as can be easily observed in
our London parks, is a good example of the extra-
ordinary gluttony of some birds ; there is some
excuse for its greedy feeding when its food consists
of herbs, buds, etc., but it keeps up the custom
on receiving the public dole of bread and monkey-
nuts, which latter it swallows with the husk enclosing
them. One evening I began to toss a few of these

GLUTTONS AND DRUNKARDS 67

nuts to a Pigeon I encountered just to see how
many it would take ; but after eating a couple, it
only took the next two or three in its bill and
pettishly threw them aside, after which it flew off.
Evidently it was already full-fed, but could not
resist the temptation to swallow a little more, and
its discomfiture reminded me of the story of the
glutton Quin, who, after eating all he could of the
homely joint of boiled aitchbone of beef, actually
burst into tears, after toying with a slice from a
roast haunch of venison, which his host, knowing
his weakness, had kept in reserve till he should be
hors de combat.

I have also heard of a case in which some Turkeys
kept on one of the Channel Islands obtained access
to a garden in which there were mulberry trees,
and gorged themselves till they died from the
effects of their meal. Birds will even get drunk, or
something very like it ; the Jungle-Fowl of Southern
India (Callus sonnerati) and of Ceylon (G. lafayetti)
feed freely on the fruit of plants of the genus
Strobilantbes, which so stupefies them that they can
be knocked over with a stick ; and in South Africa
Bulbuls (Pycnonotus tricolor) feed on the fermented
berries of the Cape gooseberry, which so intoxicate
them that they cannot fly straight or far.

Many years ago, when a boy at Maidstone, I
had an opportunity of seeing that a bird may
appear to enjoy the feeling of intoxication. Having
read that small birds could be caught by offering
them turnip-seed soaked in whiskey, I tried the

68 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

experiment, it being winter-time with snow on
the ground. Only one bird responded to the
alcoholic invitation, a cock Chaffinch, which after
partaking was visibly overcome, but able to escape
capture; and I retired myself with a feeling of
some compunction, fearing he might fall a victim
to some cat in his irresponsible condition. But I
might have spared my pity ; for next morning, a
cock Chaffinch, with ruffled plumage and in an
aggressive mood, was finishing the medicated seed
and keeping off the Sparrows, who were now quite
ready to experiment themselves.

After this, I can believe a story which was told
me in India by a bird-dealer, to the effect that if
you gave a bird an opium pill and then released it,
it would come again next day for a repetition of
the dose.

Of course the Vulture and the Cormorant are re-
garded as the stock examples of gastronomical excess
in birds ; but I doubt if this is just. They cer-
tainly can perform phenomenal gorging feats, but it
must be remembered that the Cormorant must at
any rate search and work hard for its food, and
that the Vulture's meals are very intermittent.
From what I saw in India, where Vultures were
practically always on view aloft at some time of
the day and somewhere, while one could seldom
see them feeding, I came to the conclusion that
they probably only got a meal about once a week,
so that if they indulged heavily at such times they
could not fairly be- accused of gluttony. It will be

UNAPPETISING RATIONS 69

noticed that in confinement, where Vultures are
fed regularly, they do not by any means eat im-
moderately ; a piece of meat the size of a good big
steak will suffice for the daily meal of a bird as big
as a Turkey.

Mr. Beebe, the Bird Curator of the New York
Zoo, found that Vultures in captivity preferred
fresh to tainted meat, and an attempt made some
years ago to feed the Vultures on entrails instead
of flesh at our London establishment did not meet
with success, so that it is pretty obvious that these
birds in a state of nature are often forced by hunger
to consume substances which they do not really
appreciate. The extreme case of this is that of
the small White Scavenger Vultures (Neophron)
which habitually feed on excrement, not being
strong enough to contend with the larger Vultures
for carrion ; Tristram in Palestine saw them
looking on wistfully while Griffon Vultures tore at
a carcase, to which they eagerly rushed as soon
as the big birds retired at his approach, only to be
driven off when their tyrants deemed it safe to come
back again.

It is well known, too, that hawthorn- berries form
an important part of the food of our familiar
birds of the Thrush tribe, and of Wood-Pigeons ;
yet during several London winters, which have
been mild, I have noticed that haws hung on the
trees till spring, untouched by the numerous
Blackbirds, Thrushes, and Wood-Pigeons that fre-
quent Regent's Park, showing that these berries are

70 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

really emergency rations, which are seldom touched
so long as more palatable food is obtainable. Holly-
berries are known to be even less favoured, while
on the other hand the berries of the mountain- ash
are soon eaten up, and Mr. Hudson has described
Missel-Thrushes coming to yew-trees on the downs
again and again, disgorging these berries half-
digested in order to return to the feast, a piece of
depravity only to be compared to the practices of
the gluttons of ancient Rome, who were wont to
go out to be sick in the middle of dinner.

Most observant people have seen, too, how the
Starlings strip the elders of their- berries as soon as
these are ripe, and in India I found their relatives,
the various Mynahs, equally attentive to the berries
of the peepul fig (Ficus religiosa), which were also
attractive to the Barbets ; the Bulbuls especially
revelled in the berries of the introduced Lantana
shrub, though in winter I have seen them eating
buds, though with no goodwill, the buds being
evidently .only taken in default of better food.

The tree most attractive to birds I have ever
seen, however, is the whitebeam (Pyrus aria), at
any rate in the case of a specimen which used to
stand close to the South Gate of the Zoological
Gardens before the new Eagle Aviary was built.
When this was hung with its large orange haw-like
berries, it was constantly frequented by Starlings
(which certainly do not eat ordinary haws if they
can help it), Blackbirds, and Wood- Pigeons, all
intent on feeding on the fruit as long as it lasted ;

WORMS NOT APPRECIATED 71

I once even saw a Moorhen in the top of the tree,
and although I did not actually see it feeding, unless
it was there after the fruit I do not know what
its business was, there being a much more natural
haunt for it in the rushes and shrubbery of the
Three-island Pond a few yards away.

The traditional diet of worms is probably not
so entirely to the taste of birds as one would sup-
pose ; at any rate, on keeping a wild-caught Missel-
Thrush in a cage I noticed that it would not come
down from its perch for an earth-worm unless I
stood well away, while a mealworm (an indoor-
living beetle-grub which it could hardly come across
naturally) would bring it to the floor at once.

A Song-Thrush also I knew in India and
supplied with gentles would not eat the local
earthworms. I may say these had a very peculiar
faint, sickly smell ; but on the other hand I cer-
tainly rarely saw wild birds eating these — the
only instances I can remember of seeing a bird with
a worm in its possession being those of a Brown
Shrike (Lanius cristatus) — a bird very like the hen
of our Red-backed Shrike; the White-breasted
Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis), which is more a
hunter than a fisher; and the common Babbling-
Thrush (Crateropus canorus), which I have often
seen, on the other hand, pecking away at the earth-
galleries of the termites.

When these " white- ants " swarm, they furnish
a free supper for a great variety of insectivorous
birds, notably the Crow (Corvus sflendens), Kite

72 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

(Milvus govinda), King-Crow (Dicrurus ater), and
Roller (Coracias indie a). Similarly one can see the
swarming of the true ants greatly appreciated by
our Sparrows and Starlings, the latter especially
capturing them with almost Swallow-like skill ;
while on the other hand I have seen a Swallow
reverse its natural habits by settling to pick these
ants up off the ground.

The most extraordinary aberration of feeding-
habit I ever witnessed, however, was the behaviour
of a Song-Thrush I watched at Oxford some years
ago, as it was running along the edge of the stream
that flows through Magdalen College grounds ;
suddenly it dashed into the water and secured
one of a shoal of minnows, which it beat on the
ground and then swallowed whole. It is probable
that fish are often eaten by land-birds when the
opportunity presents itself, as they certainly are
by water-birds not usually reckoned as fishers ;
thus, I have seen a Coot I kept in India suddenly
duck its head under and secure a little fish — and
it must be remembered that to an insectivorous
bird anything will serve for an insect if it is small
enough.

In India I have seen the House-Mynah (Acri-
dotheres tristis) with a gecko lizard in its bill, and
in Africa the exquisite Malachite Sun-bird (Nec-
tarinia famosa), a nectar-eater by custom and
structure, has been found to have fed on tiny
lizards ; while in Britain the Missel-Thrush has
not only been found preying on the young of the

HIGH-FLAVOURED DAINTIES 73

Hedge-Sparrow, but even carrying off a young
Song- Thrush — a feat nearer actual cannibalism than
any of those recorded above of birds usually reckoned
as predatory.

Predatory birds of all families, by the way, gener-
ally agree in their liking for mice ; and these " smelly "
little rodents are likewise much appreciated by omni-
vorous feeders. Fowls and Ducks will swallow them,
and in experiments on the feeding of the common
Crow of America (Corvus americanus), in captivity
the experimenters found that it appeared to be
impossible for a Crow to be so full that he would
refuse a mouse, and that timid new-caught speci-
mens would crowd to the front of the cage to seize
one. And we all know the service that Gulls and
Rooks, as well as Owls and Hawks, did in the vole
plague in Scotland a few years ago.

American investigators have also found that
Crows especially affect, as investigation of stomach-
contents shows, strong-smelling beetles, so that
it is not safe to put down an insect as unpalatable
simply because it smells nasty to us. In India I
have found the great and very foul-odoured cock-
roach (Periplaneta americana), an exotic and usually
an indoor insect, was readily accepted not only
by the Racket- tailed Drongo (Dissemurus paradiseus)
and Babbling-Thrush in captivity, but also by the
Brown Shrike outside, while I saw Kites and
Sparrows also feed on casual specimens they had
obtained.

It is perhaps rather significant, however, that

74 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

just as birds particularly readily eat termites, which
are used as human food in Africa, so they are also
particularly fond of grasshoppers and locusts, which
are and have been more widely used as human food
than any other insects, being even permitted to
the Jews by the Mosaic law. Jerdon, whose obser-
vations on Indian birds have never been superseded,
though often amplified, considered that grass-
hoppers were the staple food of insectivorous birds
in India, and the observations of American investi-
gators have shown that they are equally appreciated
by the birds of North America.

When locust-swarms invade a country, they are
preyed on wholesale by a great variety of birds ;
in the case of the only swarm — a very scattered one
— I ever saw in India, it was amusing to see the
Calcutta Sparrows, who probably had in few cases
ever seen a locust before, valiantly tackle these huge
shrimp-pink grasshoppers on the wing and bring
them to the ground.

Certain special kinds of birds also have long been
known as the particular enemies of locusts, following
them everywhere, and thus earning the gratitude
of humanity ; of these the most noteworthy being
the Rosy Pastor (Pastor roseus), the most beautiful
of the Starlings, in Eastern Europe and in Asia,
and the Pratincoles or Swallow- Plovers (Glare ola)
in Africa, where also another Starling (Dilopbus
carunculatus) is a well-known " Locust-bird."

Dragon- flies are also greatly appreciated by birds ;
I have seen two very different species using them

BUTTERFLIES AS BIRD DIET 75

to feed their young in our Museum grounds in
Calcutta — the Red-eared Bulbul (Otocompsa emeria)
a fruit-eating tree-bird, and the Indian Dabchick
(Podicipes capensis). The victims of the Bulbuls
were always, so far as I saw, the slender small
Agrionid types ; so were the Dabchicks* generally,
and it was amusing to see the little divers sneak
along with head lowered to the surface, and capture
the resting insect with a sudden spring. I once
saw a bright scarlet Libellulid offered to a young
Dabchick, and once saw a Brown Shrike capture
one of these red dragon-flies in repose. It is at
such times, I fancy, that these most active of
insects probably fall victims, and the same remark
would apply to flies. Quick as these are on the
wing, I have seen the heavy, awkward-looking
Muscovy Drake (Cairina moschata) waddle up and
pick them off leaves with ease and certainty,

To birds which are specialized for catching
insects flying, such as Swifts, Swallows, etc., of
course no flying insects present any difficulty, but
it is significant that birds of this type, whose preying
habits are so well known and conspicuous, rarely
seem to attack butterflies. No bird is known as
the " butterfly-catcher " anywhere, though we have
" bee-eaters " and " fly-catchers," and though
moths are ravenously pursued, as one may see even
in London with the Sparrow. This is not to say
that birds never eat butterflies, but that these do
not form a common prey ; in India I certainly did
not see a bird attack or possess one oftener than

76 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

once a year on the average, though particularly on
the look-out for this, and the American investiga-
tions on the food of birds showed that in 40,000
stomachs of insectivorous birds four butterflies only
were found.

CHAPTER IV

Nutrition (continued) — Manipulation of food — Powers of digestion,
differing in different groups — The formation of pellets or
castings — Difference in the food of old and young in some
cases — Different methods of feeding the young — Young
assisting parents in feeding their juniors — Feeding of each
other by the sexes — Drinking, and eating of such substances
as salt and earth.

GENERALLY speaking, there is little manipulation of
food among birds, it being generally swallowed
whole ; and in many cases the power of deglutition
displayed is almost as remarkable as in the case of
reptiles. Fish-eating birds have the greatest repu-
tation for bolting huge morsels, but some of the
vegetable-feeding groups are very good seconds,
especially the large fruit-eating Pigeons, some of
which are instrumental in disseminating the nutmeg
by swallowing it for the sake of the investing

" mace."

In accordance with this habit of wholesale swal-
lowing, the tongue is of little importance in most
birds ; and although it is generally well-developed,
it is very rarely protruded beyond the bill, and
generally lies nearly inert within the lower jaw. In
the Pelicans and their allies, Gannets, Cormorants,

77

78 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

and Snake-birds (Plotus), it is a mere pimple-like
rudiment, as it is also in the curious Shoe-billed
Stork (Bal&niceps rex) ; it is tempting in this case
to put its disappearance down to the necessity for
clearing the course for swallowing large prey, but
it is very doubtful if this explanation is correct, for
a very short tongue, if not an actually rudimentary
one, occurs in groups with different feeding-habits,
while both long and short tongues are found in
groups where the food is the same.

Thus, the animal-feeding Kingfishers and the
mainly fruit-eating Hornbills both have very short
tongues ; the Herons have long tongues, the Storks
short ones — both animal- feeders. Among vegetable-
feeders, the Toucans, though so like the Hornbills
in their form and habits, especially with regard to
the bill and its use, have long tongues ; the Part-
ridges have tongues of suitable length for their
beaks, the Tinamous, so like them in feeding and
general habits, very short ones, like their giant
relatives of the flightless Ostrich tribe, all of which
are short-tongued, including the small worm-eating
Apteryx.

It would seem, therefore, that in most cases the
possession of a tongue proportionate to the bill
or a very short one is a group-character, and that
the organ is in a state of degeneration in many cases.
I may mention, however, that in two cases I have
seen birds indulge in the curious — for them — action
of licking their chops ; in that of the Heron (Ardea
cinerea) and the Pied Kingfisher (Ceryle varia), both

TONGUES AS FOOD-GETTERS 79

fishers, but one long-tongued and the other short,
though the beaks are so much alike.

In some cases, however, the tongue may be
useful and even of vital importance ; we have seen
it is so in the Crossbill, and in the Woodpeckers
in the various honey-feeding groups it is most
instrumental in getting the food. Woodpeckers
have the tongue very long and wormlike, and can
protrude it to a distance at least equal to the length
of the bill ; the tip is horny and barbed along the
sides, so that the organ not only acts as a probe
but a grapple, and is used to drag out grubs, etc.,
that cannot be reached with the bill.

In the Sapsucker above-mentioned the armature
of the tip is slightly modified, so that it is more
like a brush than a spear-head. I found in young
specimens of the Indian Golden-backed Wood-
pecker (Brachypterus aurantius), which I reared
from the nest, that the end of the tongue is plain
until the bird is fledged, the barbs not appearing
till later ; one very tame one I had gave tactile
demonstrations of the use of the tongue as a probe,
for she used not only to sound the top of my head
with her bill in a most uncomplimentary way, but
tickle my ears as if they were so many worm-holes.

In our Wryneck the protrusibility of the tongue
and its use in feeding on ants and their cocoons
has long attracted notice ; the quickness of action
in this case is such that the ants' cocoon appears to
the observer to be attracted as by a magnet ; in
the bigger and slower-moving Woodpecker the

8o BIRD BEHAVIOUR

worm-like tongue is conspicuous enough. No
doubt the apparent attraction of the Wryneck's
food to its bill, and the bird's queer snake-like
movements under excitement, were what commended
it to ancient sorcery as a love-charm ; it was, as
students of the classics know, bound to a wheel,
which was spun as a love-charm, the " iynx " being
invoked to bring the beloved person to the spinner.
The custom, indeed, became proverbial ; " to spin
the Wryneck " at any one was the Greek equivalent
for our " setting one's cap " at him.

To turn from Wrynecks and witches to Wood-
peckers ; the extensile tongue is brought into
play by others than the Sapsucker to procure
vegetable juices ; a Woodpecker in Jamaica (Me-
lanerfes striolatus) makes itself very objectionable
to planters by puncturing the rind of the sugar-
cane and sucking out the juice ; and another in
Cuba (M. superciliaris) is such a pest by performing
a similar feat in the orange-groves that it is, or
used to be, the custom to turn the army on to
Woodpecker- shooting when there was not a revolu-
tion on hand to keep them healthily occupied.
One of this species was some time ago in the pos-
session of Mr. J. D. Hamlyn, the well-known bird-
dealer, and used to amuse itself by using its tongue
to grapple the tails of some Budgerigars or Grass-
Parrakeets in the compartment immediately above
it.

These sap- and juice-sucking Woodpeckers natur-
ally remind one of the true nectar-feeding birds,

SYRUP-SIPHONS IN ACTION 81

of which the Humming-birds of America are far
the best known ; and it is a curious and interesting
fact that the Humming-birds and Woodpeckers
both have the tongue supported on C-springs, for
in both the horns of the " hyoid " bone, which
supports the base of the tongue, are immensely
long and slender, and curve right over the back of
the head. This is, however, only one of the cases
in which a common internal character is no more
important than a common external one, for there
is no reason to suppose from the rest of their
structure that the Humming-birds and Wood-
peckers are related ; and the tongue itself is quite
different in the Humming-birds, for though just
as protrusible as the Woodpecker's tongue, it is
composed of two horny tubes lying parallel, each
side of the tongue curling inward, and the whole
forming a suction-pump most efficacious in sucking
up honey from flowers.

Syrup-sucking is only a side-line with the Wood-
peckers, but with Humming-birds it is certainly
the main business in many cases, though all eat
insects more or less, and some, such as the plain-
coloured " Hermit " group (Phaethornis and allies)
do not visit flowers at all, but feed only on insects,
for which they search the trunks of trees and the
undersides of leaves, always hovering, however, just
as the flower-feeding species do before the flowers.

That Humming-birds are essentially syrup-
drinkers is shown by the fact that they come readily
to glasses of artificial syrup put out for them, and
6

82 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

when newly captured will readily drink up syrup
while held in the hand. So will the Sun-birds of
the Old World — at any rate the two Asiatic species
of which I have had experience, the Purple (Cin-
nyris asiatica) and the Amethyst-rumped (C.
zeylonica).

These small and brilliantly coloured birds are
often mistaken for Humming-birds, just as the
Hornbills of the East are often called Toucans, the
American birds in each case having obtained the
earlier and greater reputation with the public at
large, as well as with naturalists. And indeed the
habits of the Toucans and Hornbills are sufficiently
alike to afford a good excuse for this ; but the
Sun-birds, charming little creatures though they
are, seem commonplace after the fairy-like hovering
Humming-birds, since they simply hop about like
Tits or small Warblers, and do not hover more
than those birds do. Their tongue is also less
specialized, though also tubular, but their diet is
exactly the same, and Mr. A. Ezra, who had at the
time of writing the only two living Humming-
birds in this country — one specimen each of the
Garnet- throated (Eulampis jugularis) and of Ricord's
(Sporadinus ricordi) — finds that they thrive well on
the same fortified syrup, composed of honey,
Mellin's baby-food, and condensed milk, which
has well served the various species of Sun-birds for
which he first used it.

Neither Sun-birds nor Humming-birds can support
existence for long on a diet of sugar-syrup alone,

BOURU FRIAR-BIRD,

The head in this large Honey-eater is feathered, but the more typical Friar-birds are
bald-headed, whence the name given them.

82

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SUGAR AS A NUTRIENT 83

though they will live on it at times for weeks ;
Mr. Hamlyn brought a specimen of the Malachite
Sun-bird (Nectarinia famosa) all the way from
South Africa on plain syrup only, and another
London dealer, Mr. De Von, brought a Humming-
bird— and a young one at that — over from the
West Indies on the same simple diet. It is true
that neither survived long, but these small birds
must find more nutriment in sugar than it is gener-
ally credited with affording.

Besides the Sun-birds, which are typical Passerines,
another passerine group are well-known nectar-
feeders ; these are the Honey- eaters of Australasia,
which are the common " small birds " of that
region ; they are birds of quite ordinary appear-
ance, for though some are very small and bright-
hued, with long curved beaks, like Sun-birds, most
are plain in tint, and in size equal Finches or even
Thrushes and Jays, while their. beaks are not very
strongly curved. They have, however, a tubular
tongue with a brush-tip, and feed mostly on honey
when they can get it, though taking plenty of
insects as well. All these honey-eating insectivores,
by the way, capture insects with the beak, just as
Woodpeckers often do.

Other passerine birds scattered here and there
in different groups are very fond of sweet juice, and
have extensile if not very modified tongues for
obtaining it ; such are the lovely leaf-green Bulbuls
of the genus Chloropsis in the East, the active
Sibias among the Babblers, and the American

*4 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

Sugar-birds (Ccereba) and their allies, which are
supposed to be related to the fruit-eating Finch-
like Tanagers, and certainly grade into them if a
whole series is examined, though the typical long-
billed Ccerebas are so like Sun-birds that if they
had been Oriental birds they certainly would have
been classed with them. The most charming of
all, the Yellow-winged Sugar-bird (Coereba eyanea)
has often been exhibited at our large bird-shows.

It is not surprising that the honey-sucking habit
should have originated independently in several
groups, for it occurs now and then in quite ordinary
birds as an occasional trait. Gilbert White has
described how the Lesser Whitethroat runs up the
stem of the crown-imperial lily to sip the honey
from the flowers ; and in India the Pied Mynah
(Sturnopastor contra), although the most insectivorous
of the Mynahs in the ordinary way, attends without
fail at the blossoming of the magnificent red-
flowering cotton-tree.

It is not without interest in this connection to
note that our Starling, introduced into New
Zealand, has learnt the habit of drinking honey, in
this case from the flowers of the New Zealand flax
(Phormium tenax). As this plant is grown in some
parts of England, it would be of interest to know if
our Starlings here have learnt this habit ; if not,
it would seem probable that in New Zealand the
introduced birds have picked it up from a native
honey-eater, the Tui or Parson-bird (Prosthemato-
dera novte-zealandia:), which curiously resembles

HONEY-EATING PARROTS 85

them in plumage, being dark dull brown when
young, and richly glossed with green and bronze
when adult.

Besides the family of Humming-birds and the
various ,honey- sucking groups of Passerines above
alluded to, there are honey-sucking Parrots, and
in the case of these, too, the honey-sucking habit
has evidently originated more than once quite
independently. These birds have longer and more
protrusible tongues than other Parrots — though the
difference is not great — but they differ in detail.

In the Lories, which are far the most numerous
and best-known of these Parrots, the tongue has
the papillae on its end much elongated, so as to
form a very short-fibred brush ; in the Nestors,
of which only the Kaka or Forest-Parrot of New
Zealand (Nestor meridionalis) and the sheep-worry-
ing Kea survive, the end of the tongue is plain, but
has under it a plate of horn not unlike the human
nail, of which the end is split into bristles ; while
in the little Bat-Parrots (Loriculus), which are so
peculiar in their habit of sleeping upside-down, the
tongue is quite ordinary, although they are confirmed
honey- eaters.

It seems curious to find honey-eaters among
such a group as the Parrots, with beaks so strongly
specialized for cracking and crunching ; and as a
matter of fact some at all events of the syrup-
sipping forms will eat seed in confinement, crack-
ing it in quite the normal way, although too much
of such food is said to give them fits.

86 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

The power of cracking the harder seeds is very
highly developed in the typical Parrots ; as may
usually be seen at the Zoo, the great Hyacinthine
•Macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) can crack a
Brazil nut with no more effort than a Canary
bestows on a grain of hemp-seed. This cracking
and rejection of the husks of seed, etc., is particu-
larly characteristic of Parrots, and of Finches
among the Passerines, and in doing this the tongue
undoubtedly comes into play to some extent, as
may also be seen when a Parrot chews up a piece
of food, as the larger species at any rate do, these
showing the nearest approach to mastication that
is found among birds.

The seed-cracking habit, however, occurs also in
the thicker-billed Larks ; the Larks, by the way,
are a group particularly well exhibiting the grada-
tion of beaks — our Skylark has an ordinary bill
suitable for any purpose, picking up seed, shoots,
or insects. From this a gradation can be traced
to the long thin almost Hoopoe-like bill of the
great Desert Lark (Certhilauda alaudipes), only
suited for digging and probing for insects ; and on
the other side to the great heavy seed-cracking bill
of Clot-Bey's Lark (Rhamphocorys clot-bey), which
equals in size and strength that of most of the
" Grosbeaks " among the Finches. And as Larks
are only passerine birds, and very much alike except
for their beaks, the evolution here would seem to
be comparatively recent.

Like the honey-sucking habit, the seed-cracking

METHODS OF HUSKING SEEDS 87

habit crops up here and there ; I have se^n . at
the Zoo the small Red-billed African HorriBill
(Lophoceros erythrorhynchus) cracking canary - seed
with its great clumsy bill, though it was not very
successful in rejecting the husk, and swallowed some
of this as well as the grain. It is interesting, too,
to offer monkey-nuts to Sea-gulls and Curassows,
and see how they deal with this unknown food by
crunching the brittle shell and then dropping it on
the ground to pick up the disclosed nuts ; it evi-
dently only needs a little more skill to make them
efficient seed-shellers.

Some birds, without strength of bill to crack
seed, get over the difficulty by holding it down
with their feet, and splitting it with the bill ; this
is particularly characteristic of the Tits, and thus,
I find, a Hooded Crow manipulates a monkey-nut.

It is, of course, quite the usual custom of Tits
and Crows to use their feet in holding any article
of food which they need to divide, and in accord-
ance with the general practice of birds which thus
behave, they do not swallow their food in huge
mouthfuls, but rather the reverse. Crows, indeed,
may often be seen to gulp, apparently, large lumps ;
but these are in reality only pouched beneath the
tongue, to be afterwards disgorged and torn up.

The habit of using the foot or feet when feeding
is a comparatively uncommon one, and generally
restricted to perching birds ; it is very familiar
and most perfectly developed among the Parrots,
which hold up their food to their mouth in quite a

88 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

human way, though it will be noticed that as the
foot ca'nnot be turned inwards, as it is by fruit-
bats when behaving rather similarly, it is the
knuckles or dorsal surface of the foot that is pre-
sented to the mouth. The habit, however, of
" fisting it " when feeding is not universal among
Parrots, being not practised, by the little Love-
birds (Aga<pornis), the Budgerigar (Melopsittacus),
and no doubt many others. The Kea when
holding food in the foot does not raise this, but
rests it on the hock, so that it has to stoop to its
food, thus showing the habit less perfectly developed,
as one would expect from its less specialized struc-
ture.

It is in this way, too, that those passerine birds,
other than Crows and Tits, which use their feet in
feeding hold their food ; such are the Shrikes and
the Babblers, though the habit is not universal
here either, albeit very characteristic of the more
typical genera. Finches have very generally the
habit of holding down food on to the perch with
one foot, as any one may see on presenting the
family Canary with a piece of salad, but, as I re-
marked in the first chapter, Sparrows do not
do this, and no doubt other Finches are equally
inept ; but the point has probably never been
worked out.

Woodpeckers and Barbets seem not to use their
feet in feeding, though the former will wedge an
object into a crack to hammer it, like the passerine
Nuthatch ; but Toucans in some cases hold food

FEET USED AS HANDS 89

down with one foot. Cuckoos rarely do §p, but I
have noted the habit in the Indian " Crow-Phea-
sant " (Ctntropus sinensis) and the South American
Guira or White Ani (Guira guira), both of them
birds which are more like Magpies than Cuckoos
in form and general habits, so that it is interesting
to find them reproducing a Magpie gesture also.
The curious little fruit- eating Colies or Mouse-
birds of Africa also grapple food with one foot.

Among birds of prey the habit of using the foot
for prehension of food is apparently universal, as
one would expect from the habit of actually cap-
turing the food in this way. The food is usually
so held down, but small objects may be grasped
and held up to the mouth as by a Parrot, especially
by Owls, which differ from Hawks and most birds
which handle their food with their feet (to use a
rather Hibernian expression) by bolting huge pieces
and even whole small animals such as mice, their
swallowing capacity being very great. Even the
Vultures, which do not usually seize live food, and
the long-legged running Secretary-bird, use their
feet in feeding, and the Cariama, which is so like
the Secretary in many ways, though really nearer
the Cranes and Rails, employs its foot in the same
way. So does the Weka (Ocydromus) among the
true Rails, and the Blue Moorhens (Porphyrio) hold
up their food in one foot just like Parrots, a
fact which was known to Pliny, who specially
mentions it.

Except for these, however, the habit is hardly

90 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

known among ground- and water-birds ; no swim-
mer practises it, except the Skua Gull, and the
common Fowl only in a casual and half-hearted
way may put a foot on a piece of cabbage-leaf it
is picking at. The Brush-Turkey (Cathe turns lat-
hami), however, a less specialized bird, fairly grips
its greenstuff ; the habit seems commoner among
Australian birds than elsewhere, for I noticed even
one of the Honey- eaters, a Miner (Myzantba), hold
a grape in this way, and a Fantail Flycatcher (Rhi-
pidura tricolor) playfully grasping dead leaves, when
these birds were on view at the Zoo.

The details given above will seem to most orni-
thologists hopelessly trivial, but the habit of "using
the foot or otherwise is a most important one to
a bird ; those not possessing it are always liable
to starve or choke, the latter calamity being a very
common one among fish-eating birds, whose sup-
plies are intermittent, while except in the case of
fishing birds of prey they have little notion of
dividing their quarry should it prove to be un-
manageable. They do what they can by vigorously
beating it on their perch in some cases, as in the
case of the Kingfishers, and this habit of perch-
whacking is also seen among the Bee-eaters and
many other birds which do not supplement the bill
with the foot.

Similar is the custom of the Thrush in beating
his snails against a stone ; I have seen it do the
same thing with a looped-up lob-worm, against the
bottom bar of an iron railing, no doubt in order to

BIRDS OF WEAK STOMACH 91

prepare it for the tender stomachs of the young —
a necessary preparation, for only while writing this
book I was told of a case of a young captive Thrush
being killed by being fed with worms by its human
rearer, the annelids having fairly forced their way
through the tender tissues out of the young bird's
body.

This I can quite believe, as, though I have not
witnessed such a misfortune myself, I have had
birds of mine, which had eaten too many maggots,
pass them not only undigested, but alive, and this
not only in the case of a very tiny species, the
Crimson- backed Flower-pecker (Dic&um cruen-
tatum), but even such a large one as the Gold-backed
Woodpecker (Bracbypternus aurantius) ; with soft
vegetable food, too, I have seen the Crimson-breasted
Barbet or " Coppersmith " (Xantholtema b&mato-
cephala) pass sultana raisins entire. This, however,
and also the Flower- pecker, are fruit-eaters espe-
cially ; and such birds seem to have the weakest
digestions of any, and correspondingly the greatest
appetites ; they are always gorging, and pass the
food out in an almost unaltered condition, so that
the structure of food swallowed is plainly perceptible.
The same thing is noticeable with the fruit-eating
bats.

So sketchy, if I may use the expression, is the
digestion of the little Tanagers of the genus Euphonia
(one of which, the Violet Tanager (E. violacea), is
not infrequently imported), the most typical fruit-
eaters of a group which gradually grades into the

92 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

seed-eating Finches, that they have practically no
stomach, the dilatation of the digestive canal where
this ought to be being so slight as easily to escape
notice, so as to give the food a straight run through.

As an opposite example of a small passerine bird
with remarkable powers of digestion I may cite
the Hedge-Sparrow, which, though not a Sparrow
nor any sort of Finch, being an insectivorous bird
by structure and relationships, has a curious fond-
ness for seed, preferring it, when caged, to soft
food, and swallows it whole, digesting even hemp-
seed husk and all ; moreover, with such an able
digestion it has a vigorous appetite, eating continu-
ally and voiding a corresponding amount. It will
be noticed that, although seldom seen to pick up a
morsel of perceptible size, this little bird is almost
continually employed in eating when observed at
liberty.

The most perfectly organized digestive organs
are found in the Pigeons, in which the crop, an
enlargement of the gullet where the food is stored
and macerated, is particularly large, and double,
whereas in many birds it hardly exists, or is merely
a temporary dilatation ; in passerine birds which
possess it, such as Finches, it appears when full as
a bulge at the base of the neck above, not below
as usual, and in birds of prey is most conspicuous,
as it swells out through the feathers. Pigeons also
have the posterior or grinding part of the stomach
— the gizzard — which in many birds is not differ-
entiated from the soft anterior or digestive portion,

GRINDERS AND SOLVENTS 93

particularly strong, and in some cases even provided
with gristly or bony crushing-discs, in order to
triturate nuts or the stones of fruit.

The strong gizzard of Fowls and Ducks is also
well known ; that of the Turkey is so powerful
that in the experiments of Spallanzani, who more
than a century ago conducted experiments without
any regard for humanity but with unimpeachable
accuracy, a leaden ball studded with small lancets
was found after eighteen hours with its armature
destroyed, while the gizzard was discovered quite
uninj ured, when the Turkey was killed. And among
the Ducks the shells of the hard molluscs and
crustaceans that such sea-haunting forms as the
Eider-duck feed upon are speedily reduced by the
action of the gizzard to a substance resembling sand.
No doubt the gastric juice has something to say
in this result as well as the extraordinary power of
the muscular contractions of the stomach ; for some
birds with soft stomachs can do wonders in the way
of reducing hard substances, such as bone.

I have, for instance, given to the Goosander
(Merganser castor), a fish-eating Duck with a soft
stomach like a bird of prey, no less than forty fish
about the size of small sprats, at a meal, just to see
how many he could take ; and there showed no
signs of bone in the droppings that were passed.
I had a similar experience with another fish-eater,
the Indian Dwarf Cormorant (Phalacrocorax java-
nicus), which also digests fish bones and all ; a half-
fledged young Indian Swift (Cypselus affinis) given

94 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

to one of these birds was also digested with its bones
and growing feathers. The Shag (Phalacrocorax
graculus) and the Indian Darter (Plotus melanogaster)
also digest their fish bones and all, but the Common
Cormorant (P. carbo) casts pellets.

This habit of pellet-casting is another that needs
careful investigation ; unfortunately in many cases
it is necessary to keep the bird in confinement to
ascertain these points about digestion, and in the
case of pellet-casting one has to be on the watch,
for the castings are not always thrown up every day.
In some cases a species may be exceptional among
its group, as in the case of the common Cormorant
above noted ; but commonly the casting of pellets
or otherwise seems to be a group-character. It is
very well-known among birds of prey, and the
falconers of old were well aware that to keep their
Hawks healthy it was necessary to provide them
with some indigestible material with which the
pellets might be formed, such as a tuft of wool
dipped in blood to make it palatable.

The fish- eating birds of prey throw up pellets
as well as the flesh- and fowl-eaters ; so do the
Kingfishers, both the fishing ones and the land-
feeding forms like the Australian Laughing Jackass
(Dacelo gigas) ; so do Herons, Gulls, Rollers, and
Bee-eaters; and among passerine birds, Shrikes,
Thrushes, Flycatchers, and no doubt others. But
the habit is not universal, and whatever may be
said about the impossibility of digesting chitin, I
have noticed no trace of insect remains among the

BONES FOR BREAKFAST 95

excrement of such birds as Starlings and Babblers,
which do not cast pellets either, so that it looks
as if they were in possession of a chitin- solvent ;
though perhaps microscopical investigation might
reveal comminuted particles of it in the dung.

Spallanzani found that a captive Eagle, though
casting pellets, did digest some portions of bones
introduced into its stomach in a perforated tube
wrapped in meat as a disguise ; it could also digest
bread thus disguised, though it would not take it
when openly offered, as Kites, even at liberty, will do.

The Lammergeier or Bearded Vulture (Gypaftvs
barbatus) has probably the strongest digestive powers
of any animal-feeder, since it habitually eats bare
bones, coming to a carcass after the other Vultures
have left it, and swallowing such bones as it can.
Others it takes up into the air and drops on the
ground, descending in order to eat up the fragments.
It treats tortoises in the same way, and Crows and
Gulls are known, by the way, to practise the same
trick with mussels. The Great Adjutant Stork
(Leptoptilus dubius) of India also swallows bones,
but it does not wait till Vultures have left a carcass,
but comes and drives them away from it, and
gobbles down all it can swallow, flesh and bones
alike.

The Lammergeier eats not only bones and flesh,
but ordure, like the Scavenger Vulture, and a
Desert- Chough (Podoces hendersoni) feeds on the
dung of beasts of burden, not merely picking out un-
digested grain, as so many birds do, but swallowing

96 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

the matter wholesale. This brings us to the con-
sideration of the power of some birds of eating, un-
harmed, food which would be not merely repulsive
but poisonous to ourselves, and even to other birds.
For instance, the poisonous nature of the skin-
secretion of toads is well known ; yet I have known
the common toad (Bufo vulgaris) eaten with
impunity by the Laughing Jackass, and the Indian
toad (B. melanostictus), which I never saw touched
by Kites or Crows, by the Crow-Pheasant or
Coucal, Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros malabaricus)
and Indian Roller (Coracias indie a) ; the last two
birds, it is true, were in captivity, but the Coucal,
which was a hand-reared one, I allowed to range
free ; but merely being in captivity will not make
every bird eat so nauseous a mouthful as a toad,
although under such conditions birds will often eat
animals which are only moderately unpalatable, like
some " warningly-coloured " insects.

Bee-eaters eat wasps, as well as bees, and are
probably immune to the sting, though the crushing
process to which they subject their prey may put
this out of action. The Laughing - Thrushes
(Garrulax group), in captivity at any rate, rub
these stinging creatures against their own tail-
feathers before eating them, and the Pekin Robin
(Liothrix luteus), a smaller member of the same
group of Babblers, treats black ants (red ones it will
not eat) in a similar way. The object is no doubt
to wipe off the acid exuded, for a lady fancier
recorded in one of the bird-fanciers' papers some

HAIR IN THE STOMACH 97

years ago that a tame Starling did this with horse-
radish which had been soaked in vinegar, a delicacy
for which it promptly made when allowed to get
to the meal-table.

A more natural proceeding, one would think,
would be to rub the offending morsel on the
ground, a proceeding I have seen a captive Babbler
(Crateropus canorus) of mine follow out with a
caterpillar, armed with most penetrating spiny
bristles, before eating it. Such caterpillars, as well
vas the softer-haired ones, are generally avoided by
all birds, but as is well known, the Cuckoo eats
them so freely that its stomach gets lined with their
hairs, and the common Cuckoo of America (Coc-
cyzus americanus) has the same habit ; as this is a
non-parasitic bird, it would seem that the habit of
eating food unpalatable or dangerous to other
birds is older in Cuckoos than the parasitic habit.

When I was in Zanzibar in the early 'nineties
I used every morning to see a pair of Glossy Cuckoos
(Chalcococcyx cupreus) visit the little backyard of the
hotel where I stayed to feed on the highly " warning-
coloured " caterpillars of a moth of the same genus
(Euproctis) as our " gold-tail," and the toad-eating
Coucal is a member of the Cuckoo family, though
not parasitic, like the American Cuckoo.

Every one knows that it would not be safe to
follow the guidance of the birds in eating wild
berries ; a Hornbill, indeed, even feeds on the
fruit of Strycbnos nux-vomica, from which strychnine
is obtained. Hutton also found, when collecting
7

98 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

birds in the Himalayas, that when he poisoned a
carcass with this drug, the Eagles which fed on
it were killed, but the Vultures flew away unharmed.
Tristram also records that when a pet Griffon
Vulture of his devoured the contents of a half-
pound pot of arsenical soap, the only result was a
violent fit of vomiting. It is not surprising, per-
haps, to find such endurance of virulent poisons
amongst Vultures, whose ordinary food consists of
putrid carrion, for it is well known that putrid or
sour food is very dangerous to most birds other
than carrion-feeders, even if they can be got to
eat it.

Some substances are taken in by birds for reasons
that are at times hard to understand. The well-
known habit of grain-eaters and some omnivorous
forms, like Crows, of swallowing sand and gravel is
easily explicable, since these substances aid the
gizzard in comminuting the food ; but it is difficult
to see why Hawks, living on flesh, and casting up
indigestible substances, should need to swallow
gravel, which is shortly afterwards cast up again.
As the stones are worn away by natural abrasion in
the grain-eaters at all events, they are no doubt
useful in supplying mineral matter to the body,
just as the bits of shells and lime supplied to poultry
are useful in providing shell-forming matter for
the eggs.

Some birds also eat earth ; a young Red-vented
Bulbul (Pycnonotus bengalensis) I kept in India
often did this, and I have seen a pair of an allied

EARTH AND SALT AS FOOD 99

race at the Zoo do the same ; but I do not know
if this is done by wild birds. M. G. Rogeron in his
admirable work " Les Canards," credits Ducks with
being able to extract nutriment from earth ; he
points out how eagerly tame Ducks ransack rain-
puddles in a road after a shower, where there can
be no animal or vegetable food to attract them,
and recommends that earth be placed in the pans
of water supplied to young Ducks which are being
reared in confinement.

I myself have seen Mallard in Hyde Park on a
wet day bibbling assiduously in a puddle on the
path, and though Ducks when doing this may be
only getting gravel, it would not be so very remark-
able if they and other birds could utilize earth as
food, as we well know this to be done by earthworms,
whose digestive organs are very like those of a bird
in miniature, with a crop and a gizzard stocked
with minute particles of grit all complete.

It is not surprising that salt is liked by some
birds, seeing the craving for this mineral is so widely
spread ; it is chiefly consumed however by vegetable
feeders such as Parrots and Pigeons, the last being
particularly keen on it. The Wood-Pigeon will
drink salt water in order to obtain it ; and whether
it is liked or not, salt water must be drunk by the
purely sea-birds such as Penguins, Auks, Petrels and
marine Ducks like the Eider. Gulls, however, will
come to fresh-water pools if they have the chance
in order to drink the fresh water.

Many birds, however, are curiously indifferent

ioo BIRD BEHAVIOUR

about water ; either they do not drink at all, or
only do so when water is easily to be had, not
making a special search for it, and being able to do
without it in captivity. There are the same
differences among mammals, but it is curious that
in this class the total abstainers are all herbivores,
the carnivora drinking readily and regularly, while
among birds it is most particularly the animal-
feeding kinds which can dispense with the fluid,
though some of the 'vegetable feeders can do so as
well. Owls and Hawks, for instance, can live with-
out drinking, though both do drink ; in India it
was a common sight to see Kites drinking at a
pond.

Kingfishers seem never to drink, either the
fishing or the land-hunting kinds, though I did once
see a Laughing Jackass in the Calcutta Zoo make a
sort of awkward attempt to do so. The aquatic-
feeding kinds, like other fish-eating birds, no doubt
swallow a good deal of water incidentally. This
must, one would think, especially apply to those
few favoured birds which have learnt the trick of
swallowing under water, so familiar in the case of
the Penguins in the diving-tank in the Zoo. Gener-
ally, however, a diving fisher comes up with its
fish, but among the Cormorants one of the African
species (Phalacrocorax capensis) can swallow under
water, as also can the Shag (P. graculus).

It is a curious thing that Humming-birds, Sun-
birds, and Honey-eaters should drink water so
freely, living on liquid food so largely as they do ;

A DROUGHTY REGIMEN1 101

the honey-eating Parrots are also , free . drinkers.
Parrots generally, however, can do without drinking
to a remarkable extent, and if supplied with moist
food in captivity care little for water ; it used even
to be the custom to bring over the little Budgerigars
(Melopsittacus undulatus) from Australia on dry
seed only, with no water during the whole voyage,
though under this cruel regime there was naturally
a large mortality. It is a curious point about some
of the Parrots, by the way, Cockatoos for instance,
that their mouths are dry inside, there being
apparently no secretion of saliva. In ordinary birds
the supply is limited, just enough to moisten the
mouth, and such a thing as dribbling or spitting
rarely occurs as far as I have seen.

Hornbills and Bustards can also do without
water ; but I have seen both the Great Bustard
and the Elate and Black Hornbills (Ceratogymna
elata and C. atrata) drink in captivity ; the action
of the Hornbills was very awkward, as they pecked
up the water as it were, an action also characteristic
of the Rhea or American Ostrich (Rhea americana).
It may indicate that the habit is a comparatively
new one, or that it is being lost.

With the exception of Pigeons, Sand-Grouse, and
the Gouldian Finch (Poephila mirabilis) which
drink in a continued draught like horses or cattle,
the procedure of birds in drinking is very uniform,
the water being scooped up in the lower jaw and
allowed to run down the throat ; nectar-feeders,
however, lick up their drink with their tongues. It

102 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

is curior.s that the rapid and efficient method of
continuous drinking above mentioned is confined
to such a few birds, especially as there is nothing in
the form of their bills and tongues to account for
it ; similarly birds which swallow food under
water have no special mechanism for facilitating
this — it is merely a matter of " having the knack
of it " in both cases, evidently.

The Sand-Grouse, though essentially desert-birds,
have never become independent of water like the
Bustards, no doubt having been spoilt, so to speak,
by their wonderful wing-power, which makes it
easy for them to visit even distant watering-places
twice a day ; and they even water their chicks
in a perfectly unique way, first observed and re-
corded in captive birds by Mr. Meade- Waldo. The
male bird, which undertakes this duty, soaks his
lower plumage in water and then goes to the chicks,
which suck his wet feathers. The aviary bird of
course had only to walk to his chicks, but the wild
one must surely not have very far to fly to them if
the device is to be of any use, since flying in the
dry atmosphere of the places these birds frequent
would soon dry the plumage. Generally speaking
only birds which disgorge food for their young, like
Pigeons, Parrots, Gulls, etc., can give them water,
and it is not given in a special dose by these, so
far as I am aware ; the young get it incidentally,
so to speak, with the food administered.

Birds often feed their nestling young on food
different from that which they ordinarily eat

INSECTS FOR THE NURSERY 103

themselves, and even self-feeding chicks often
show tastes in food different from those of adults.
In almost every case the difference consists in the
young bird's diet being more animal in character
than that of the old ones ; thus, Finches, which live
mainly on seed and other vegetable food themselves,
are frequently very largely insectivorous when feed-
ing young, as any one may see with the common
Sparrow. I found also the young Bulbul I men-
tioned above would not swallow fruit if it could
possibly help it, but gladly took flies and pea-meal
paste (a common article of food for insectivorous
birds among native fanciers in India), although the
adults feed, I think, more on fruit than on insects.
I have also referred above to the Red-eared Bulbuls
catching dragon-flies for their young, though I
never saw the adults eating these insects.

This habit of feeding the young on insects is a
great stumbling-block to the class of fanciers, very
numerous nowadays, who like to get their birds
to breed in their aviaries, for birds are, in the case
of species who believe in insects as a nursery regimen,
so obstinate about it that they commonly refuse
to use any substitute, at any rate during the early
stages of rearing, and even, in the case of insec-
tivorous birds, often give up eating the artificial
mixture themselves. Probably the mental excite-
ment due to parenthood produces a reversion to
the state of mind of the newly-caught bird, which
has to be gradually accustomed to the artificial
diet, just as birds previously tame often conceal

104 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

their nests and act suspiciously towards their owner
when nesting.

In some cases birds alter the diet as the young
grow older ; American investigators, for instance,
have found that Crackles (Quiscalus) give the
young as their first meals very tiny spiders, and I
noticed that a pair of Indian Dabchicks (Podicipes
capensis) I watched for years on our pond in the
Museum grounds in Calcutta fed the young for
the first week or so only on insects and small
freshwater prawns, not on fish as well, as they
did later on.

With regard to the tastes of active self-feeding
chicks, every one must have noticed the extreme
activity of young Ducks in capturing flies, which
seem to form their chief food ; and the young of
the Tufted Duck (Fuligula fuligula) catch small
fish ; the Red Grouse also, one of the most limited
of vegetarians when adult, feeding almost entirely
on heather and bilberry, nevertheless is largely
insectivorous when young, like the more omnivorous
Pheasant and Partridge. Young Great Bustards
are also far more animal feeders than the old birds,
which are mainly vegetarian.

I do not know of any bird which is vegetarian
when young and afterwards takes to animal diet,
but many can live on vegetable food from the first,
such as Parrots among nestlings and goslings
among the active type of young birds ; I also found
that young Indian Barbets of two species, the
Blue-cheeked (Cyanops asiatica) and the above-

WOOD FOR INFANT DIET 105

mentioned " Coppersmith " could be reared quite
satisfactorily on banana only, though, to be sure, I
did not get them for this purpose till half-fledged.
Among ducklings, too, those of the Mandarin, and
sometimes the Wigeon, graze when quite tiny, as
well as hunting for insects.

Birds certainly give some very queer things to
their young at times ; many years ago I saw at
Oxford Starlings carrying bits of cherries which
were not even quite ripe, to their young in the
nest, so that I am not inclined to put down to
confinement the action of some Indian House-
Mynahs (Acridotheres tristis) I saw a few years
ago breeding at the London Zoo, which regaled
their offspring with bits of ivy leaves, though
liberally supplied with insect food. Mrs. Johnstone,
too, who first bred in this country the lovely
Leadbeater's Cockatoo (Cacatua leadbeateri) of
Australia, says they fed the young mostly on rotten
wood, of all things, a jejune diet which makes M.
Rogeron's suggestion that Ducks assimilate earth
seem more probable.

But the queerest article of diet for young birds
is that supplied them by some of the larger Grebes
— their own parents' feathers ; this is, of course,
in harmony with the strange feather- eating habit
of the old birds, which appear to be able to digest
this strange diet, or at any rate to partially do so,
since they do not cast pellets — as I know from care-
ful observations on captive birds — and comminuted
feathers have been detected in their intestines. I

106 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

have seen a Great Crested Grebe at the Zoo eat
about half-a-dozen feathers in a quarter of an
hour, as they came out when it was pluming itself ;
but I never saw Dabchicks either eat their own
feathers or give any to their young.

A very rare and interesting habit is that of
young birds feeding each other ; I only know of
two cases in which it is regularly done — those of
the common Moorhen and apparently the Coot.
In both cases it is the birds of the first brood, by
this time nearly full-feathered but still unable to
fly, which thus help their parents with the small
downy chicks of the second batch ; it is a common
sight in the case of the Moorhens in the London
parks, and it was in St. James's Park that I saw a
young Coot feeding its junior. This case was a
particularly curious one, because I saw the feeding
young bird actually cry for food to the parent, and
on one occasion eat what it thus got itself, and
another hand it over to the small chick.

When rearing a brood of young Indian Rollers
(Coracias indica) I noticed that, although so ravenous
that when they saw me coming with the raw meat
on which I chiefly fed them they would not only
yell lustily but start fighting vigorously, yet a bird
which had had enough would feed another one with
the next piece given it ; this, however, was, I
expect, an abnormal piece of benevolence, chiefly
prompted by the bird's dislike to give up what it
had once seized, while it could not itself swallow
it. Similarly, the instinct of birds which disgorge

LOVE-GIFTS OF TIT-BITS 107

to feed their young may often be excited by stuffing
themselves ; canary-breeders well know that the
addition of a tasty item to the menu is the best way
to start the old birds feeding the young ones
vigorously.

One of the most touchingly human actions of
birds is the feeding of each other by the sexes ;
generally of the female by the male, which is
reasonable enough, since he has to conciliate her
feelings, and any extra food that she may obtain
without extra exertion is so much to the good,
having in view the physiological demands made
upon her during laying and sitting, to say nothing
of the care of the young, in. which she usually takes
the chief part if not undertaking it altogether.
Often the female is fed on the nest, as by the Rook ;
but this courtesy is often extended to her at other
times, though more especially at the breeding-season;
in fact, when one bird is seen to feed another, it is
generally a sure sign of the pair having decided to
enter on matrimonial affairs.

The sight is common among our domesticated
birds ; the well-known " billing " of Pigeons and
Doves is merely the female being fed from the
crop by the male, as the young are by both sexes ;
the Cock gallantly calls the hens to any morsel he
has found, and when food is thrown does not eat
until they are all served ; Canaries are so keen on
feeding something when in breeding condition
that they will, when cocks are kept, as usual, singly,
disgorge food on the perch and eat it again, and

io8 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

Parrots will attempt to feed people for whom they
entertain a peculiar regard. One may even see the
Robin, solitary and selfish as it usually is, present a
worm to its mate, and even among the Cuckoos,
proverbial emblems of selfishness, I have seen the
male of the Koel (Eudynamis honor ata), the com-
monest species of India and a fruit-eater, give to
the female berries plucked from the bough on
which they were both sitting.

Here the action is the merest courtesy, comparable
to our habit of rising to open the door for a lady ;
at the opposite extreme of supplying all the female's
necessities is the action of the Hornbills, among
which the hen walls herself into the nesting-hole
in a tree with a plaster of her own droppings, while
the cock feeds her through a slit left in this, envelop-
ing his contributions in a gelatinous envelope
secreted from the coat of the stomach — its epithelial
lining, in fact ; at any rate, such bags of food have
been disgorged by Hornbills in captivity and it has
been assumed, perhaps too hastily, that the action
was normal in nature also. The Hoopoe, an ally
of the Hornbills, also assumes the entire responsi-
bility of the maintenance of the sitting hen, though
he does not encapsule her rations nor does she
wall herself into the nest.

One would naturally suppose that the habit of
feeding the female would be generally adopted
among birds ; but it is doubtful if this is the case,
and there are certainly many exceptions even among
groups in which, as in the above instances, the

MALE BIRDS STAND TREAT 109

kindly act is well known to the most ordinary
observer. It seems to be universal in the Pigeon
family, indeed ; but it certainly is not in the
poultry tribe ; the Guinea-fowl feeds his hen like
the common Cock, and so does the Satyr Tragopan
(Tragopan satyra) ; but the common Pheasant
and Peacock do not, nor do the Gold and Silver
Pheasants. Quails do it, both the Harlequin Quail
(Coturnix capensis) and the pigmy Painted Quail
(Excalj actor ia sinensis) ; I have seen nothing
more quaintly appealing in bird life than the
action of a cock Harlequin Quail in one of the Zoo
aviaries, which came up to me and the keeper who
was showing me through, drawn up to his full height
and looking with such an obvious request that I
asked instinctively " What does he want ? " " Meal-
worms,-" said my companion, " but not for himself
— for the hen," and sure enough he honestly gave
her every one he received.

Feeding the hen is, I believe, as universal among
Parrots as among Pigeons ; but it certainly is not
so among Finches — although Goldfinches and Lin-
nets and many others do it ; Sparrows certainly do
not, nor, I believe, do Chaffinches. But it is S.
difficult to prove a negative, and the action is
often confined to birds in the height of breeding V
condition, of which it is among fanciers the well-
known index, as has been stated above.

Among birds of prey I have never seen a case,
although Kites (Milvus govinda) were so common
about Calcutta, and wife-feeding by their neigh-

i io BIRD BEHAVIOUR

hours and rivals, the House-Crows (Corvussplendens),
was one of the commonest actions to be observed ;
but O. St. John saw one Kestrel feed another in
Morayshire, and Mr. E. Selous has fully observed
in Iceland the victualling of the hen Merlin by her
mate when rearing young.

I cannot recall any case among waders and water-
fowl, except among Terns, which feed the sitting
hen and also make love-gifts when courting ; pro-
bably the habit is pretty widely spread among such
fishing- birds which seek food away from home, but
it cannot be taken for granted. Among the Duck
tribe, affectionate mates as these are, the action is
almost entirely confined to the Carolina or Wood
Duck of North America (JEx sponsa), which makes
a show of his love-gift, holding his head and tail
high up when offering it, this attitude being his
display position. Neither Geese nor Swans, though
life-pairers and very devoted, ever seem to feed
their mates at any time.

It is a curious fact that in at any rate some cases,
when the roles of the sexes are reversed, and the
male incubates and cares for the young, the female
is so masculinized that she not only fights for the
male but feeds him ; at all events, this was observed
by Mr. D. Seth-Smith, the Bird Curator at the
Zoo, when as a private aviculturist he bred two
species of Hemipodes or Button-Quails (Turnix),
Quail-like birds in which the hen is the superior
sex.

As this is not usually the case in birds which

SELFISHNESS NO DRAWBACK in

build tree or rock nests and have helpless young,
female feeding must not be looked for here, although
an observer of the home life of the Peregrine Falcon
has noted that the hen, the larger and stronger
bird, as is well known, supplied her smaller mate
with food for the young, part of which he inci-
dentally ate himself — a case exactly the opposite
of that of the Merlins observed by Mr. Selous,
although the two species are not remotely related
and present just the same kind of sexual difference
— with the advantage in size on the female side.

Except when it goes so far as feeding the sitting
or rearing hen and the young, it is doubtful whether
this habit has any survival value of importance —
it is merely the outcrop of kindliness of nature,
similar to that which restrains some birds, such as
the Cock and the male of the Cotton- teal (Nettapus
coromandelianus) from retaliating on a female under
attack from her.

That it has little utilitarian significance is shown
by the fact that the selfish Pheasant can seduce
away a hen from the gallant and generous Cock if
he can conquer him in combat, which is usually
the case with all breeds of poultry but the Game ;
and the Carolina Duck will sometimes mate with
the related Mandarin Drake, though this bird's
idea of politeness to the female, even of his own
species, does not go further as a rule than not
rudely squabbling with her for a morsel. I must
admit, however, that I have once seen him go so
far as awkwardly to drop the bit and let her take

112 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

it, but generally speaking, his extreme ostentation,
combined with an inconsiderateness not shown by
the more modestly and tastefully attired Carolina,
looks as if it were designed as a satire on the human
dandy, notoriously the worst and most indifferent
of husbands. The parallel, however, would be a
dangerous one, for except in generosity, the Man-
darin yields little if at all to his American cousin as
a lover.

CHAPTER V

Propagation — Care of young — Different types of young birds —
Different modes of feather-development, as seen in young
Fowl, Pigeon, or Duck, for instance — Egg-coloration and its
meaning and variations — Prolificacy and otherwise — Incuba-
tion mounds — Periods of incubation.

THE care of old birds for their young has always
attracted the attention of humanity, and one of the
best known allusions to nature in the Bible is the
text that speaks of the fowl gathering her young
under her wings. As one would expect, it is gener-
ally the hen that has most to do with the incubation
of the eggs and the nursing, so to speak, of the
young, while they are still so small and weak that
they need to resort to a parent for warmth, being
unable to keep up their temperature by themselves.
This performance on the part of the parent is
termed brooding or " hovering," and in the cases
where it can be watched, as in birds which brood
their active young on the ground, it will be seen
that the parent sits down on its heels, while the
young run under and are sheltered by the plumage
of the breast and sides. In the case of a young
Avocet that was hatched and reared at the Zoo some
years ago, it was interesting to see how the little
8 "3

ii4 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

thing would stand up under its long-legged parent,
whose body was not very near the ground even with
the legs bent, so that only its little legs were visible,
the body being concealed in the parent's feathers.

Some birds, however, may brood their young
on the back under the wings, like the common
Mute Swan, in which this seems to be the habit of
the female only ; in the case of a pair of the South
American Black-necked Swan (Cygnus melancory-
phus) which bred at the Zoo some years ago, how-
ever, the male carried the cygnets in this way
quite as often as the female, but this may not be
normal with the species, as I never saw the male
of the Kew pair do it when he had young — he seemed
to spend most of his time in making unprovoked
attacks or at least threatening naval demonstrations
against the Geese.

In Grebes the young are habitually carried in
this way on the back of the swimming parent, at
any rate at first, and I have been able to observe in
the case of the Indian Dabchick (Podicipes capensis)
that the parent when brooding them on the nest
at night also takes them on its back there ; cer-
tainly the wet nest would be a most inconvenient
and probably unsafe bed for them, as they are far
less hardy than young Ducks, and even these can
easily have too much wet. Both of the pair of
Dabchicks I watched carried the young, but espe-
cially the bird I took to be the female, although it
was the larger ; coloration in Grebes is no help
in fixing the sex. While one bird carried the

FEMINISM A FAILURE 115

chicks, the other hunted for food, so the co-operation
was perfect.

In many species, however, one sex does everything
or nearly so, and this is generally the female, as
remarked above, but extra- fatherly male birds
occur, which take over all the ordinarily feminine
duties. These comprise nearly all the " Ratite "
or primitive flightless birds — the Emu, Casso-
waries, Rheas, and Kiwis or Apteryxes, but not
the true Ostrich ; the Partridge-like Tinamous of
South America, which, although flyers, are really
" ratites " by anatomical structure, with the excep-
tion of the keel on the breast-bone ; the Hemipodes
or Button- Quails, and the little Coot-footed Sand-
pipers or Phalaropes.

It will be noticed that although some of these
birds are enormous in size, none are remarkable in
any other way, so that the inference is pretty plain
that feminism in the bird world, though quite a
workable arrangement for reproducing the species,
is not the way to produce a high type of birds, the
great " runners " being merely lumbering degener-
ates except the one which has resisted feminism,
the true Ostrich, which is a magnificent creature
in his way, and holds his own in a region full of
formidable mammals, both carnivores and herbi-
vores.

The so-called American Ostrich, the Rhea, seems
to have got into a curious mixture of roles in his
family affairs ; unlike the Emu and Cassowaries,
in which the males are purely feminine in char-

ii6 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

acter, while the larger females are quarrelsome and
non-incubators, he is larger and fiercer than the
hens, and fights fiercely to win them from rival
males, whereupon the ladies pool their eggs in the
nest he scratches out, and leave all the rest of the
work to him. A cock Rhea might have been seen
in the London Zoo at the time of writing this,
proudly escorting a brood of young, whose mother
cared so little for them that she had to be driven away
from the special food provided for their delecta-
tion, which the father hardly touched ; this eating
of the young birds' food by the indifferent mother
being apparently the usual thing in such species.

Generally, of course, if there is an indifferent
parent it is the male especially if decorated; Cocks
and Drakes, for instance, do not aid their mates in
rearing the family, but the habit is not constant in
groups. Male Partridges and Ganders protect the
young, and the former even brood them ; male
Swans also sedulously guard their cygnets, as male
Sheldrakes do their ducklings.

In many birds there is a very fair division of
labour, as with Pigeons, Sand-Grouse, and the
true Ostrich, the cock doing half the work if not
even more. Among the domestic Pigeons and
Doves, for instance, it will be noticed that while
both feed the young indiscriminately, the sitting
is very evenly divided, the cock sitting from about
ten in the morning till about five in the evening,
while the hen takes the rest of the time, and has
perhaps the best of the bargain, as she would

PIGEONS ADMINISTER PAP 117

have to sit quiet at night in any case. In the
Ostrich and Sand-Grouse the reverse is the case,
the hen sitting by day and the cock by night ; the
cock Ostrich, however, is said to show more solicitude
about the young than the hen, and in the case
of the Sand-Grouse it is the cock that waters the
chicks as above described.

The feeding of the young of Pigeons is accom-
plished during the early infancy of the " squeakers,"
to use the fanciers' appropriate technical term, by
a curd-like substance actually secreted from the
walls of the crop in both sexes ; and as this, except
for the absence of sugar, closely agrees with milk
in chemical composition and properties, the old
First of April expression " Pigeon's milk " is some-
thing more than a mere joke. As the birds grow
older this is mixed with half-digested food, and
the secretion ceases altogether long before the birds
are reared.

Pigeons, by the way, feed their young by taking
the bills of the young, which are soft and much
bulged at the base, into their own, and pumping
up the food into their mouths, whence the young
suck it down ; the method employed by Parrots
is similar, and so is that of the Ibises. Very awk-
ward indeed it looks, too, when the young Ibises
are fledged and still want feeding, for though the
bill of the nestling Ibis is not much longer than a
young Pigeon's, it is nearly full-length when the
bird leaves the nest, and it looks a most unpleasant
proceeding for the old bird to have a long bill

ii8 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

thrust unceremoniously down its throat. But in
the case of Penguins and of the Pelican group >
including Cormorants and Gannets, matters go
much further ; at any rate the young bird does,
for it gets its head and even neck well down the
long- suffering parent's gullet.

I well remember in Calcutta getting hold of a
fledging young nestling of the Darter or Snake-
bird, which was brought to the market for sale
half-reared. It was charmingly tame, but the
head, at the end of its long slender neck, wobbled
most provokingly when I tried to feed it, so that,
eager though it was for the fish I offered, it was a
difficult matter to get one placed in its mouth.
The obvious move that suggested itself was of
course to hold the wobbling head in one's hand
to steady it ; and to my intense surprise, as soon
as I did this, the bird's mouth suddenly expanded
to about twice its previous size, so that it looked
like a funnel. Obviously the clasp of my hand
reproduced the pressure of the parent's gullet, to
which the nestling instinctively responded.

Since then I have read an interesting note by
Miss R. Alderson, a keen amateur of Doves, about
her difficulties in getting food into the mouth of
a very young Dove-nestling she was rearing, until
its beak happened to slip between her fingers, when
it opened it at once, and was thereafter fed quite
easily ; evidently in this case a little pressure to
represent the feel of the parent's bill was all that
was needed.

SPOILT CUCKOO CHILDREN 119

The method of putting the beak and often a good
deal more, as we have seen, inside the parent's
mouth, is, however, not the usual one with nestlings
which are fed by the parents ; the more popular
method is for the young to gape and the parents
to place the food in their open beaks, whether they
disgorge it or bring it in morsels. This may be
seen in the case of Canaries, Sparrows, and small
birds generally, to say nothing of less familiar
creatures like Hawks, Owls, Kingfishers, Rollers,
etc. Nightjars grip the bill of their parent with
their own, and young Storks, judging from the
behaviour of specimens which are reared now and
then at the Zoo, expect the old birds to throw up
the food into the nest, when they pick it up and
swallow it — a most insanitary-looking proceeding.

Generally speaking, nestling birds have no idea
of picking anything up till they are nearly fledged,
sometimes not till after they can fly, and would
starve in the midst of plenty through not dreaming
of stooping to pick up their food. Cuckoos are
particularly slow in learning to pick up food, and
in nature seem to be thoroughly spoilt by their
foster-parents. They are especially ravenous, and
this applies to the non-parasitic " Crow- Pheasant "
of India, as well as to the parasitic species.

Even among our few domesticated birds we are
well acquainted with two different types of young,
which may be conveniently called active and passive,
the " nidifugous " and " nidicolous " young of
ornithologists ; the latter, about which I have

120 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

been speaking above, being exemplified by the
" nestling " young of Canaries, Budgerigars, Doves,
and Pigeons, while our ordinary poultry, with their
active running or swimming chicks, exemplify the
former.

When we study the bird class family by family,
we shall find that the cleavage between these two
types of nestlings is very definite and complete ;
that is to say, they never both occur in the same
family. All young Pigeons, so far as is known, are
as helpless as those of the common Pigeon, even
in the case of those Ground-Doves found in America
and Australia which so closely resemble Partridges
in general habits ; and all young of the Duck family,
from the grazing Geese to the fishing Mergansers,
are as well able to "paddle their own canoe" as
the familiar domestic duckling.

The two types crop up independently, moreover,
in very distinct families ; no one would think of
classing Pigeons and Hawks together because they
both have helpless young and feed them, or putting
Fowls and Ducks in the same group because in both
cases the young are active and more or less inde-
pendent. It will be seen that the two types of
young have no relation to the general habits of the
parents, whether carnivorous or vegetarian, terres-
trial or aquatic ; the production of one or the
other type may be regarded as a minor habit,
generally connected with the style of nest or
nesting-site used. Thus, birds which have a well-
developed perching foot, such as Pigeons, Herons,

PASSIVE AND ACTIVE YOUNG 121

Cormorants, and Parrots, to say nothing of the
numerous tribe of Passerines, generally build above
ground on bushes, trees, or rocks ; and such will
naturally enough have helpless young ; those which
have the foot only formed for running or swimming,
and the hind-toe very small or absent, are naturally
less apt to perch, build on the ground as a rule, and
have young which are active runners or swimmers.

It thus becomes possible in most cases to predict
the probable nature of a previously unknown bird's
young by the structure of the adult's foot ; but
such detective-story methods in natural history are
to be employed with great caution, and in the
present case, as might be expected, exceptions
occur. To take the flightless birds, for instance, the
rule works out all right with the flightless runners,
from Ostrich to Apteryx, all of which have non-
grasping feet with the hind-toe absent in all but
the last ; but it fails when we turn to the Penguins,
which have a dwarfed useless hind- toe, even situated
on the inner side of the foot, and yet have young
which are helpless nestlings, in spite of the labour
thus entailed on the flightless parents in trudging to
and from the sea to get supplies for them, a labour
in which the male is as earnest as the hen.

Among the flying birds, too, we find that in the
Petrels, which are by no means perchers, having
the hind toe reduced to a nail, and breed more
often in holes in the ground than anywhere else,
that the young are helpless and fed with an oily
substance disgorged into their mouths by the parents.

122 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

Then on the other side, there is at least one
family of tree-haunting and high-nesting birds which
has active young, that of the Curassows and Guans
(Cracidce), perching game-birds with gripping feet,
which take the place of Pheasants and their kin in
the forests of the warm parts of America. The
chicks here are fed by the parent for a day or so
at any rate, judging from the behaviour of captive
specimens, and they are hatched with the wing-
feathers as well developed as in a chicken a fortnight
old ; it seems that they follow the parents along
the boughs and creeping vines — so I was told by a
naturalist, who said the chicks could be caught by
shaking them down ; no doubt this is one reason
why so many of these birds are so extraordinarily
tame in captivity ; they have presumably been
hand-reared after such a method of capture.

Some of the typical game-birds, for instance the
Javan Peacock (Pavo muticus), the Tragopans, and
also the Argus, have the quills well developed at
birth, so that there is not such a great gap between
more ordinary game-birds and the young of the
Megapodes or Mound-builders, which are hatched
with wings quite full-fledged and fit for immediate
flight, though the body is downy. These represent
the extreme of precocity in modern birds, and are
the most independent of all young ones, since the
parents take no trouble about them at all, as, being
able both to feed and to fly, as well as to run, all
they need to gain is experience and size in order
to be as good as any adult.

WINGS FIRST TO FEATHER 123

The Game-birds, then, typify one method of
fledging, which is found among few others than
them, that of the wings developing long before
the rest of the plumage. Even our domestic
chickens show this well, although not " able to fly
in a few hours," as a much-respected authority
stated. Chicks of this type pick up most of their
food, though the hen often draws their attention
to it ; young Peafowl and Turkeys do not begin
to feed for a longer period after hatching than
Fowls, a peculiarity which is no doubt the reason
why poultry-keepers stigmatize Turkey-chicks as
stupid, and needing to be " taught to peck " —
the real reason being that the yolk in the intestines
at the time of hatching lasts them longer than it
does Fowl-chicks, though even these need nothing
for the first twenty-four hours.

Besides the Game-birds, Hemipodes, and Tina-
mous, the Rhea and the common Cape Penguin
(Spheniscus demersus) exhibit the peculiarity of
fledging first on the wings.

At the other extreme of precocity comes the
Fowl's domestic companion, the Duck ; ducklings
are even more lively than chickens, need less brooding
and for a shorter period, and are more enterprising
in foraging for food, on land as well as in what is
popularly regarded as their only proper element.
In fact, a poultry-breeder once complained to me
that ducklings of the Indian Runner breed simply
ran away from the old hens who were acting as
foster-mothers, who could not keep up with them,

i24 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

young ducklings being notoriously insubordinate,
at any rate to hens, though they will listen to a
Duck mother if she calls to them.

But in spite of their independence, which is
greater than that of any young birds other than the
Megapodes, the fledging of young Ducks is most
curiously slow. They grow and grow, and lose
all their chubby infantile prettiness, and get more
than half as big as their parents before any feathers
come at all ; and even when these do appear — on
the shoulders first, and then the sides of the breast —
the wings remain very tiny, out of all proportion
to the powerful legs, and do not enlarge and sprout
quills till the bird is full-feathered almost every-
where else and is nearly full-sized ; this is the
stage when the birds are known as flappers. Geese
and Swans also develop in exactly the same way.

Some other water- or marsh-birds show a similar
slowness in growing feathers to replace the down,
and in the enlargement and quill-growth of the
wings ; these are the Rails — as any one can see in
the case of the young of the common Moorhen
and Coot — the Cranes and the Grebes. Young
Grebes have a special remarkable peculiarity of
their own in fledging ; the head-feathering " hangs
fire " longest of all the plumage, so that a Grebe
may be full- winged and downy-headed at the
same time, a very rare case among birds, though a
similar one is found among the young of the Cranes.
So far as is known, this retarded fledging, like the
precocious fledging, runs through the family wher-

EVEN GROWTH OF FEATHERS 125

ever it occurs ; it will be noticed that except in
the case of the Penguin, these methods of fledging
are only found in families which have active chicks.

The third method of fledging is that which occurs
in the vast majority of birds, and is what one
would have reasonably expected in all of them ;
that is to Say, the feathers grow pretty evenly all
over the body, and the wings develop in size like
the legs, and grow their quills pretty nearly as
quickly as the body-feathers, and much more so
than the tail, which goes ahead in the case of the
retarded fledgers of the Duck and Rail type ; our
Pigeons, Doves, Canaries, and Budgerigars furnish
familiar examples of this, as well as such wild birds
as Thrushes, Sparrows, etc.

But these are all birds with helpless young ; and
the uniform method of fledging, being so prevalent,
is also found among birds whose chicks are active,
such as Plovers and Gulls. Some people, indeed,
regard the young Gull as intermediate between the
active and passive type of young bird ; but as it is
able to walk about, even when quite small, and can
pick up the food the parent vomits for it, even if
it does not provide for itself, it can fairly claim
to be put on the active list.

It is, however, often hatched in a nest which
puts pedestrian exercise out of the question, as
when this is on a ledge of a cliff, and so there is
certainly a tendency in young Gulls to degenerate
towards the passive type. This is so also with their
diving relatives the Auks, but even these, cliff-

126 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

dwellers though they are, can walk, and pick up
fish, etc., where brought by the parents — which
do not swallow and vomit it, but carry it in the bill
— and in the case of the Guillemot, at any rate, go
down to the sea when half-fledged, their fledging
being uniform as in Gulls, though this premature
jump into existence results in the death of many.

The young of that most curious bird the Cariama
(Cariama cristata) also seems to show a partially
degenerate type. It lies quietly in the nest, which
is built aloft, though the old birds spend most of
the time on the ground, but yet has patterned
down, dark brown with a cream streak down each
side of the back and cream spots upon the brown ;
and as such down is usually found in runners, it
presents to the eye a queer blend of the two types
of young ; but the young one I observed, bred at
the Zoo, left the nest long before it could possibly
fly, though perhaps this was premature. At any
rate it climbed back to it when a bough was placed
as a ladder, so the same thing may occur in nature,
the nest being in a tree ; it did not seek for food,
but waited till the old birds gave it, just as Moor-
hens and Coots do when they are very young ; and
they keep taking it from the parents at times even
when fledged, as this young Cariama did, and thus
show, on their part also, signs of pauper degeneracy.

In fact, the feeble, whining squeak and imploring
attitudes of the young of the Rail tribe contrast
very unfavourably with the liveliness of their
frequent companions, the ducklings ; in the case

ENTERPRISING DUCKLINGS 127

of the New Zealand Weka Rail, the parents, which
are flightless ground-birds, have been seen running
to and fro until quite weary, plying with food their
young which they had left in a place of safety.

Grebes, again, nursed on the parent's back and
fed there or on the nest for a week or so, come
very near being mere nestlings, and are very feeble
at first, unable to do more than crawl, and un-
willing to swim ; and the Swans' cygnets are not
nearly so active on land as goslings and ducklings,
though downy and swimming well enough ; and
as their parents carry them on their backs, at any
rate at times, and do something to feed them — the
Mute Swan, as is well known, pulling up weeds for
them, while the Black Swan, as I have seen, will
pull them grass from the bank — these young also
seem to approach nearer the nest-fostered type
than the active majority of the family.

Indeed, the young of several members of this
group are much more active and enterprising than
their parents ; young Mallard frequently dive for
food like young Tufted Ducks and Pochards, even
up to the flapper-stage, though adults very seldom
do so, and they are also very much more active on
land ; young Sheldrakes of three species that I have
watched, the Common (Tadorna vulpanser), Ruddy
(Gas arc a rutila), and New Zealand (C. variegate),
dive most freely for food during the first week or
two, while I have never seen the adults of any of
these species do this, while they readily turn tail-up
in the usual Duck manner, although in the ordinary

128 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

way they are more land-feeders than Ducks gener-
ally. So are common Wigeon; and I have seen
their young ducklings dive for food, but, curiously
enough, not Mandarin ducklings, though the old
birds will dive for food more readily than any other
surface-feeding Duck — indeed, I have seen them
do so more freely than at least two of the diving
Ducks — the Rosy-billed (Metopiana peposaca) and
Red-crested Pochard (Netta rufina).

What habits the young of the curious Magpie-
Goose may have do not seem to have been recorded ;
it would be interesting to know if they fledge late
like the rest of the family.

Flamingoes, by the way, show a distinct difference
from the Ducks in this respect; they fledge early
and gradually, the wing quills developing in good
time, just like the young of Storks and Ibises, to
which, as I said above, they appear really to be
allied. Their young are fed with disgorged food
from the beak, at any rate at first, just as in these
members of wading groups.

Quite the most curious instance of parental aid
given to active young birds is that of the Wood-
cock, which carries its young from the dry wood
in which they are hatched to the moist feeding-
grounds, gripping them between the legs, which
are in this bird very short for a wader, not longer,
in fact, than a Partridge's. Even when the young
are so far advanced towards maturity as to be bigger
than a Snipe, the habit is kept up.

Another instance of active young being carried

RESISTANCE TO INJURY 129

in the parent's feet is that of the young of a very
common Eastern water-fowl, the Small Whistling
Tree-Duck (Dendrocycna javanica), which commonly
breeds in trees, and has been seen to bring the
young 'ducklings down in that way. The tree-
breeding habit occurs frequently in Ducks, espe-
cially in tropical climates, and our Wild Duck
frequently breeds in pollard willows or on decayed
stumps, but the young in such cases generally
jump down and take their chance, though
M. Rogeron records one case in which he saw the
old bird carry down the young in her bill, as the
American Wood-Duck or Carolina Duck (&x
sponsa) is said to do.

I have heard, however, of a case in which
the nearly related Mandarin Duck, breeding
at large on an English estate, nested in a hole
about fifty feet above a hard carriage drive, and
the young simply jumped down and sprinted off
for the water ; of course young Ducks are very
light, and thickly padded with stiff down, and so
can take risks of the kind better than might be
supposed. But the power of resistance of even adult
birds of such a kind to a fall must be great ; I have
known an adult Carolina Duck escape from the
former zoological sale-collection on the terrace at
Covent Garden and fall (being pinioned) on the
hard stones beneath, and yet not be injured.

A curious instance of a young bird of the active
type in appearance being nevertheless a nestling
in habits is that of the young of the South American

9

130 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

Sun-Bittern (Euryfyga belias) which bred in the
London Zoo at the zenith of that institution, when
it was under the Sclater and Bartlett management,
and really excellent results were got there. This
bird is .described as being like a young Woodcock
or Snipe in appearance, with variegated down, and
it did not gape or cry like young birds generally,
but when the parents flew on to the nest, which
was at the top of a pole, with a small fish or other
food in their bills, it snapped or pecked the morsel
from them and devoured it.

The Sun-Bittern is not well-named, for, in spite
of its carnivorous and wading habits, it is not at
all like a Bittern, and forms a family of its own,
related to the Rails ; evidently it is a bird whose
young are degenerating into the nestling type.

Within this type are to be found, as will be in-
ferred from what has been said, varying degrees of
degeneracy ; young birds of prey, for instance, can
seize with their feet and tear up food before they
are out of the down. They will even walk about
a little, if their surroundings permit, while in this
stage, and so will young Penguins and even Pelicans,
though in the case of the latter there is often little
chance, as these birds as often as not nest on trees.
Young Nightjars are also quite able to run, and do
so for short distances.

Young Larks may be perhaps returning to an
active condition, as they will ramble away from
the nest before fledging ; Mr. W. Farren has
amusingly described in a recent number of Wild

NON-SLIP PADS FOR NESTLINGS 131

Life how young Woodlarks venture away for a
few feet from the nest when alone and undisturbed,
and then, when frightened, shrink back to it, as
if attached to invisible strings of elastic which
pulled them back by contraction. This tendency
to " reverse engines " is very marked among many
nestlings, and is no doubt connected partly with
the habit of backing to the edge or opening of the
nest in order to discharge their dung, a piece of
instinctive sanitation, and with retirement on alarm
without turning round.

It is particularly well marked in young King-
fishers, which run backwards in a most comical
way. They are provided with a pad on the hock-
joint, on which they rest, like so many young birds,
in repose ; but it is not nearly so well developed
in them as in young Woodpeckers and Barbets,
which have a very marked horny- studded heel-
cap, and, as nestlings, do not move on their toes at
all, but on the heels, as I was, I believe, the first
to record, having reared the Indian Gold-backed
Woodpecker (Bracbypternus aurantius) and two In-
dian Barbets — the Blue-throated (Cyanops asiatica)
and the Crimson-breasted (Xaniholezma bama-
tocephala)' — from the nest, and so noted not only
the occurrence of the heel-pad (which had been
previously observed in the Wryneck), but also its
function. Such a pad has since been observed by
Mr. Seth-Smith in the young of a Toucanet (Seleni-
dera maculirostris).

These young Barbets, by the way, had a pecu-

132 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

liarity I never observed in any other nestlings : they
kept their tails turned over on their backs, and
under their closed wings ; a most admirable ar-
rangement for the tight packing which is the lot
of nestlings reared in holes hacked out in trees,
as young Barbets are, but nevertheless young Wood-
peckers have not the habit, though similarly placed.

The nestling most celebrated for its peculiarities
is that of the Hoatzin (Opisthocomus hoazin) of the
forests along the edge of some rivers in northern
South America. The adult bird is not unlike a
perching Pheasant in general form, size, and habits,
but the young are most curious creatures, clad at
first in a scanty down like that of a young Pigeon,
but nevertheless born open-eyed, not blind as Pigeons
.and other naked or nearly naked nestlings are ; they
are also able to clamber about the boughs, in which
action not only the bill and feet are brought into
play, but also the wings, which have claws at the
end of the first and second digits, the first digit in
birds being that little movable point which
supports the set of pigmy quills known as the
bastard- wing, which may be seen projecting at the
pinion- joint of a Pigeon's wing when it is about to
settle, and the second forming the tip of the
pinion.

These claws of course represent two of the three
original claws found in the separate digits of the
primaeval birds' forelimb (which were probably
simply enclosed in a common skin like a Kingfisher's
toes), and so it is interesting to find them still in

YOUNG HOATZIN.

A half-fledged specimen, showing its method of climbing with bill, wings, and feet.
132

BRUSH-TURKEY.

This is one of the largest of the mound-birds, and the only one commonly seen in

captivity.

OVEN-BIRD.

'The Oven-bird is brown and white, about the size of a Thrush, and has the strutting gait
of a Bantam cock.

WING-CLAWS FOR CLIMBING 133

use in a modern bird, if only during youth, for as
the bird gets older and fledges, which it does in
the usual uniform way, the claws are shed. This is
curious, because in the Ostrich, which is ages away
from any perching or climbing ancestor, being not
only flightless but having lost not only the gripping
hind toe but also the one next to it, the wing-
claws are retained throughout life.

The peculiarity of the young Hoatzin is not so
unique as might appear, for the young of the
Tpuracous (Musophagidtz), with which it used
formerly to be classed, also pull themselves about
their nests with their wings, as was first pointed
out by Sir Harry Johnston, and confirmed by Mrs.
Johnstone from observation on a specimen bred in
her aviary.

Young Moorhens and Porphyrios also use their
downy wings (which have a claw on the first finger)
in scrambling about, and young Grebes — at any
rate young Dabchicks — can during the first week or
so of their lives only get about in this way on
land, or rather on the nest, which is all the land
they know. The really most interesting point
about the Hoatzin, then, would appear to be that
it is apparently a link between the nestling and the
chick types of young, having the imperfect clothing
so common in the former and the active habits of
the latter, though we are not told if it feeds itself
at all.

So distinct is the separation between the two
types that there is only one case in which the

134 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

young of one family differ in type from those of
another nearly allied to it ; this being that of the
young of the Sand- Grouse (Pterodidce) which are
active runners, though with a very different type
of down from that of young game-birds proper, it
being more like true feathers. Yet the Sand-Grouse
are supposed to be allied to the Pigeons, in which
the young present the consummation of the help-
less type, blind and pap-fed, with the down nearly
always scanty, and sometimes even wanting, as in
the bare black young of the Nicobar Pigeon (Calcenas
nicobarica), which reminds one of a new-hatched
Cormorant, Cormorants and Gannets being bare
at first and downy later on.

But the Plovers are also a related group, and
these the Sand-Grouse approach in their aborted
hind toes, in their flight and notes, and in laying
spotted eggs on the bare ground, as much as
they do the Pigeons in their short legs and vege-
tarian habits. Those Pigeons also which have
adopted a ground life and assumed a coloration
strikingly like that of Sand- Grouse, nevertheless do
not resemble them more than other Pigeons other-
wise, so that possibly the Sand-Grouse are not so
near Pigeons as some anatomists have made out.

There is only one family of birds in which the
young are not definitely known, and that is the
extraordinary little group of Finfoots (Heliorni-
thidce), of which only three species are known, all
from warm climates, one African, one East Indian,
and one South American. In appearance and

INFANTILE UGLINESS 135

habits they are a strange blend of Rail and Cor-
morant, and all we know about their young is that
Prince Maximilian of Wied once shot a male of the
South American species (Heliornis fulica) carrying
two naked young under its wings. A male Dabchick
might have been doing this, but the queer thing
about the Finfoot's young is that they should have
been naked, since such young always remain in the
nest ; further information is certainly much to be
desired, but the Asiatic bird seems everywhere
rare, and nobody has taken much trouble about the
African and American species, though both have
been kept in captivity, one of the former having even
been brought to England by Mr. J. D. Hamlyn.

Besides the inactivity of passive nestlings, the
absence or very slight development of down in
many of them is very striking, and their extremely
repulsive appearance when thus clad, or rather
unclad, makes it easier to understand the descent
of birds from such an unpopular class as reptiles.
" The young at first are perfectly bare and very
hateful," is the remark of Russ on the young of a
little Finch, as quaintly translated by Dr. Butler
in his book on foreign cage-birds.

But there are gradations of this in the same
family ; for instance, among the Passerines, the
young Lyre-bird is well clothed with down, and
Mr. W. Frost tells me that he finds the young of
the pretty Thrush-like Pittas, at any rate the Aru
Islands species, are so as well ; Canaries and Robins
have a little down, but Sparrows and Crows none.

136 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

Among Parrots, young Cockatiels and Keas have
down, but Budgerigars and Ring-necked Parrakeets
are bare. So, apparently, are all Kingfishers,
Rollers, Woodpeckers, and Bee-eaters, but Hoopoes
boast of <ca little bit of fluff," though Hornbills
are naked. Nightjars are downy, and so are Owls
and Hawks, the down of Owls being in most cases
in two crops, the first one white, like that of most
young Hawks, while the second one is coloured
and often barred. Curiously enough the young of
the Snowy Owl is black, like that of the White
Tern (Gygis), and the goslings of the Snow-Goose
are very sooty- looking little things — at least hybrids
between the white and blue-grey forms are.

Among the Geese, uniform though their life-
habits are, all being big strong wary birds, living in
the open, able to swim, and feeding on vegetable
food, there is a remarkable variety of down-colour
and pattern in the young. Some are nearly self-
coloured, olive ranging into yellow, as in the case of
the common Grey Goose (goslings are only all yellow
when the offspring of a white tame Goose, just as
all yellow ducklings are the offspring of tame Ducks),
or into black, as in the Snow-Goose ; and some
have a strong contrasted pattern, dark over most of
the upper part and white below, as in the Bernicle,
while in the highly specialized Cereofsis the goslings
are striped light and dark.

Generally speaking, however, patterned down —
striped, pied, marbled, or spotted — is characteristic
of active chicks, while the passive nestlings, when

SELF-COLOURS AND STRIPES 137

they have down at all, have it self-coloured, usually
black, white, grey, or buff. There is an interesting
exception, however, in the case of the Osprey
among birds of prey, whose helpless young have
variegated down, although in such birds the down
is generally white.

Among the birds with active young, too, there are
conversely groups or species which have se^coloured
down ; young Rails are black, young Cranes tawny,
or, in the case of the splendid Stanley Crane of
South Africa (Tetrapteryx paradisea), grey, and
cygnets grey or white. And among the Game-birds,
which so generally have striped down, that of the
young chicks of the desert Seesee Partridge (Ammo-
perdix bonbami) is plain buff; and so is that of
Hemprich's Gull (Larus bemprichi), which breeds
on the scorching rocks of the Red Sea.

Taken into consideration with the fact that the
young of the common Fowl, which are naturally
strongly striped, as may be seen in the young of
such breeds as the Brown Leghorn, which are
coloured like the original Jungle-Fowl, generally
appear in buff, black, yellow, or grey down, the
conclusion seems at first irresistible that in the case
of patterned chicks the pattern is necessary for pro-
tection, and that where security does not depend
on coloration, it tends to disappear. Thus, the
Cranes and Swans are strong birds and can protect
their young and the Rails are clever skulkers and
never go far from cover, so that the young of these
may have lost the pattern just as nestling birds

i38 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

have, it having become unimportant. The sandy
young of the Partridge and Gull above mentioned
might be cited as important confirmatory evidence,
their exceptional plain colouring being in this case
just what was wanted for protection.

It is also well known that the chicks of most
ground-birds instinctively crouch when alarmed,
after the fashion of most assimilatively coloured
creatures. But on the other hand there are several
cases in which birds of similar habitats have widely
different down- coloration, and the reverse ; some
have been mentioned in the case of the Geese,
and among the Ducks we find that the young of
the Tufted Duck and Pochard, very similar in
habits and diving power, and breeding on the same
waters, are very different in the down, the young
Pochards being patterned, very like the young of
the surface-feeding Mallard, and the young Tufted
nearly all black. Conversely, the ducklings of
Mallard and Muscovy Ducks are both patterned in
black and yellow, and yet the former never breeds
in the tropics in a wild state and the latter is
essentially a bird of the hot zone of America, so
that their environments must differ much more
than those of the Pochard and Tufted Duck.

Emus are more strongly striped in the down than
any other young birds except Grebes, and one could
hardly have birds more widely separated in habits,
Emus being almost the biggest of land runners, and
Grebes the most aquatic of all birds, and of
moderate or even small size.

FUR-LIKE BABY-CLOTHES 139

In any case, it will be noticed that the down of
young birds resembles the fur of beasts in colour-
ing, just as it does in texture, though the latter
resemblance is of course superficial, down being
merely a specialized form of feathers. No adult
birds are longitudinally striped to the extent that
chicks often are, but such a marking is not uncom-
mon in beasts, such as the striped squirrels of
Asia and America, and the striped mice of Africa,
to say nothing of the striped young of most of the
wild pigs. The marbling of certain chicks, and
the spotting of others, may be compared with the
varied coats of cats and civets, and, most interesting
of all, it will be seen that chicks exhibit no colour
which is not found in mammalian fur, however
brilliant their feathers may be when they grow up.
Black, white, and grey, chestnut, brown, and buff,
are almost all their tints, and the only bright one
they show, yellow, is just that which is permitted
to beasts ; visitors to the Zoo will recall the yellow
beard of the Mandrill and the yellow whiskers of the
Moustache Monkey (Cercofithecus ce-[>hus), to say
nothing of the self-yellow coat of the Lion Mar-
moset (Midas rosalia) which surpasses that of any
duckling. Several weasels also boast of yellow
throats and breasts, and squirrels almost rival the
gayest monkeys in brilliancy of tint.

Moreover, young birds, like mammals, may dis-
play other bright colours if these are limited to the
skin, or at any rate to featherless parts. The red
on the head of young Coots and Grebes may be

140 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

compared to that on the Mandrill's Bardolphian
nose, and the young of the Indian Paddy-bird
(Ardeola grayi), a very near relative of the Squacco
Heron of our British list, display among their tufts
of long hairy-looking down a skin of as lively a
green as any monkey can show in uncovered portions.

It may happen that young birds are far prettier
than their parents, as in the case of the charmingly
striped and red-capped young Grebes ; in this case
they remind one of reptiles, in which the young are
generally very much more beautifully and distinctly
marked than the old, a contrast which is especially
marked in the case of crocodiles and tortoises, which
are quite handsome when young, though so parti-
cularly dull when adult ; and every naturalist must
have noticed the pretty silver-and-black young of
the plain-coloured slow- worm (Anguis fragilis), and
the rich sharp tints of young snakes.

According to their reptilian descent, young birds
must at first have been active and variegated, and
tended to degenerate into uniform down or even
nakedness, as they departed further from the
ancestral type. The flying, independent young of
the Mound-builders, hatched as they are without
incubation, ought to be primitive, but they are
said to have a suit of down which they cast in the
shell, and at any rate they are not striped, a fact
which militates against the utility of striping for
protection, since they particularly ought to need
it, not having any parental care exercised on their
behalf, but shifting for themselves from the first

THE REAL BIRD'S-EYE VIEW 141

like young reptiles. Also, if striping is so protective,
why are striped small animals, although not absolute
rarities, so infinitely in a minority compared to the
plain brown ones ? And why are the pestiferous
skunks and zorillas, armed with their fetid secre-
tions, striped like the young Emus and the Cereopsis
goslings ?

The fact is, we shall not know anything certain
about the meaning of colouring in relation to pro-
tection until our airmen have a chance to take to
animal observation, and give us the real bird's-eye
view, since some of the worst enemies of all small
life must be the birds of prey, which are common
in all countries where man has not killed them off
to protect his poultry. Beasts and reptiles, of
course, do their share of destruction, but the
former mostly hunt by scent, and the latter depend
much on seeing their prey move, when no colour
is of any use.

Although they present such great diversity in the
habits and care of their young, as opposed to
reptiles in which these are always active and inde-
pendent, birds, as every one knows, are as uniform
in their production of young as in their possession
of plumage, since they all lay eggs, and eggs with a
hard shell at that, unlike the parchment-coated eggs
of most reptiles. But they greatly differ from
reptiles in the great diversity of the colour of these
eggs, which is of course the reason for the great
popularity of birds'- egg-collecting.

Nevertheless, many groups have kept up the

142 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

reptilian custom of laying plain white eggs — or at
all events very faintly tinted ones. Penguins,
Grebes, Pigeons, Owls, Woodpeckers, Barbets, Tou-
cans, Bee-eaters, Rollers, Swifts, Hornbills, King-
fishers, and Humming-birds all lay white eggs,
and although most of these lay their eggs in holes,
a great number do not,, notably all the Humming-
birds and nearly all the Pigeons, our common
Blue-rock and the Stock-Dove being quite excep-
tional in the family in their habit of breeding under
cover. The eggs of the Duck tribe also are always
light- coloured and unspotted if not actually white,
though in this case it must be admitted that the
birds always cover them when leaving the nest, as
do some of the Game-birds, like the Partridge.
On the whole it would seem that birds which lay
white eggs simply do so because they are physically
incapable of laying eggs of any other colour.

With regard to the numerous spotted eggs, it
may be freely admitted that when laid on the bare
ground, as by Plovers, they are often really hard
to find, and that here protective resemblance
probably does come into play ; but in the case of
the often bright- coloured and beautifully-variegated
eggs of passerine birds, generally deposited in open
nests in trees and bushes, the colour does not seem
to be of any great importance, the great point
being that the nest should be concealed. If such
eggs were coloured to assimilate to the foliage, we
might expect some green ones, but in practice
there are no truly leaf-green eggs except those of

GEMS IN PLAIN CASKETS 143

the Cassowaries, which are just like big unripe
plums, and are of course laid on the ground. And
as a matter of fact, eggs of any sort are practically
never of a pure colour, either in ground or markings ;
blue-greens, green-blues, brown-reds, and yellow-
buffs are the usual tints, but no egg is azure-blue,
scarlet-red, or gamboge-yellow, or even magenta
or violet.

The most richly coloured eggs are those of the
Tinamous (Tinamida), which have a glaze like
china and are self-coloured, exhibiting such tints
as sea-green and plum-purple, though they soon
fade when blown. The Tinamous themselves are
one of the plainest-coloured families of birds in
existence, not one species having any bright or
conspicuous marking, and only a few even such
little decorations as a red bill or yellow legs ; and it
will be noticed that taking the class of birds as a
whole, a beautiful bird never lays a beautiful egg,
and vice versa. " The music of the moon sleeps
in the plain eggs of the nightingale," says the poet,
and the glories of the Peacock's rainbow train and
the Golden Pheasant's glowing crest and blood-red
breast are packed into eggs of a simple cream-
colour, while in the same family the sombre Grouse
and Quail lay quite richly mottled eggs.

One of the most curious coincidences among
birds is to be found in the markings of the eggs
of many birds of prey, which are just like dried
blood, foreshadowing the little murderers which
will break through their shells ; a believer in ma-

144 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

ternal impressions would tell us that this is just
what one might expect, but the white eggs of the
equally sanguinary Owls would confute him.

But the existence of such meaningless coincidences
should make us careful in assigning a survival value
to every modification of form and colour in either
bird or egg ; the subconical shape of the Guille-
mot's egg, for instance, certainly renders it less
likely to roll off the ledge on which it is laid, but
then one parent bird or the other is always on it,
and the peg-top shape of the eggs of Plovers and
shore-birds, although it facilitates packing in the
cross-shaped arrangement, points all inwards, which
the sitting bird affects for them, may be merely
incidental and not specially evolved.

Sometimes there seems to be no reason whatever
for the peculiarities of an egg ; why, for instance,
should the curious Pink-headed Duck of India
(Rbodonessa caryophyllacea) lay, in an ordinary Duck-
nest, eggs which in colour, gloss, and roundness
remind one of a set of billiard-balls ? Then as to
markings and tint, no reason has been given why
the Guillemot should lay eggs so extraordinarily
variable in these respects, or why birds which lay
coloured or variegated eggs should, generally speak-
ing, exhibit so much difference in their output,
as compared with the uniformity of their plumage.

Broadly speaking, one may expect in any species
laying a variegated egg specimens lightly and
heavily spotted, and others with fairly evenly
distributed markings contrasting with some in

AN ORIGINAL GUILLEMOT 145

which the colouring tends to concentrate in a
belt or cap, almost invariably at the large end —
phenomena which are well exhibited in the common
Sparrow. No other bird is anything like so variable
in its egg-coloration as the Guillemots, but some
are very far from being even ordinarily true to
type, as the Red-backed Shrike with its olive and
red types, some Indian Warblers with their blues and
reds, and some of the African Weavers with their
self-blues, spotted blues, and whites.

Individual birds, however, tend to reproduce the
same type of egg ; there is an historical instance of
a Guillemot which laid on a particular rock-shelf an
egg of the rare and valuable red variety which was
duly taken for fifteen years on end — though of
course this might have been the produce of another
bird with the same peculiarity. Yet on the other
hand, all the eggs in a laying may not match ; the
Tree-Sparrow is notorious for having one differently
marked egg in every set, and the Golden Eagle
commonly lays one variegated egg and one plain
one. It is said, also, that in the case of birds which
lay richly coloured eggs, the coloration varies as
the bird advances in years, which is, after all, rather
what one might expect.

The colour is in any case laid on almost like
paint, and will smear if the egg be washed when
new-laid ; while in the case of the eggs of many
groups — Shore-birds (Cbaradriidtz), Gulls, Rails,
and song-birds especially — it will be noted that
there are often two sets of spots, one of which
10

146 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

has been laid on before the shell is complete and
so lies deeper and looks fainter, such under-surface
spots being grey, lilac, or mauve in colour.

In the eggs of Cormorants and their kin (Stegano-
podes), Grebes, and some of the non-parasitic
American Cuckoos (Crotophaga, Guira) there is a
chalky layer external to the real shell, which is often
blue, and shows here and there. In the case of the
Cuckoo Guira, the "White Ani," the effect is
exceedingly pretty, the rich blue shell being plenti-
fully flecked, but not obscured, by the chalky
secretion. Grebes' eggs, by being covered by
the owners with some of the sodden weed of which
the nest is made, soon get stained and are generally
seen as buff or brown objects, though the proper
and original colour is white ; Ducks' eggs are
naturally greasy on the surface. The egg of the
Fulmar is distinguishable by the nose, having the
same strong smell as characterizes every part of its
producer, even to one feather.

The surface of birds' eggs generally varies a good
deal, from a rough one like unglazed porcelain to
the glazed type best shown in the Tinamous' eggs ;
but Kingfishers and Owls also lay very glossy eggs,
and Ostriches' eggs are both glossy and pitted.
The shell gets duller and more brittle as the eggs
are sat upon in the case of birds generally.

The number of the sitting varies in a very inter-
esting way ; in quite a number of birds it is at the
minimum, the egg being single. This is the case
with Petrels and Albatrosses, the Gannets, the

A LOVE OF ODD NUMBERS 147

American Vultures, the Lammergeier, the Sun-
Bittern, the White Noddy (Gygis), the Crab-Plover
(Dromas ardeola), and many Auks, Penguins, Hum-
ming-birds, and Pigeons. Most Pigeons and Hum-
ming-birds, however, lay two eggs, as do some of
the diving sea-fowl just mentioned.

Four is the ordinary number with the shore-
birds — Plovers, Sandpipers, and so forth — and it is
only among these that a larger set than one or two
is constant ; as a general rule when twins are
exceeded, " several " is the only numerical expres-
sion which can be used to describe the hatch.
Birds which do not lay two or four eggs seem,
however, often to think that there is luck in odd
numbers, for three, five, and seven are frequent
numbers.

There is a widespread tendency, as that very
acute observer, Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker, has pointed
out, to over-rate the number of eggs laid by the
Game-birds and Ducks ; these are really not so
much more prolific than the birds nursing helpless
young in nests as is supposed, at any rate in the
East. The wild Hen oftener lays six eggs than a
dozen, and this will be a reasonable brood for many
Ducks ; the Australian Musk-Duck (Biziura lobata)
only lays three eggs. It would appear, however,
that in Europe most birds, Passerines included, are
more prolific than in the Tropics.

The eggs of birds which have active young are
credited with being bigger than those from which
passive nestlings are excluded, as well as more

148 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

numerous ; and certainly the largest eggs propor-
tionately to the parent come from species with this
habit. The Guillemot, for instance, whose young
is as active as existence on a narrow shelf of rock
admits, lays an enormous egg, and this is surpassed
by the Kiwi, whose egg is so large that it is difficult
to see where the bird's internal organs go while
it is being carried, and the male bird, which alone
incubates, cannot cover it properly, but has to
lie across it. The Jack-Snipe, too, accomplishes
something like a record in laying four eggs so big
that they average over the inch in their widest
diameter, while the bird is not bigger than a Lark.

The Raven, on the other hand, is remarkable,
even among nestling-fosterers, for the small size of
its eggs, which are hardly bigger than those of the
Carrion Crow, a bird hardly more than half its
size and of similar general habits. The Wren, true
to its original and self-assertive character, lays a
large sitting of relatively large eggs for its size.
It will be noted, however, that very small birds
do not lay the tiny eggs one might expect ; those
of Humming-birds, for instance, though among
them may naturally be found the smallest of all
eggs, are not proportionately so minute as one
might have supposed.

There is evidently a limit to the smallness of
eggs ; an experienced poultry-fancier told me not
long ago that this was the obstacle which faced the
bantam-breeder, for whenever an exceptionally
tiny pullet was reared, she was certain to succumb

HENS WITH ONE CHICKEN 149

sooner or later at the attempted laying of her first
egg, the egg not being reduced proportionately
to the size of the hen. Something of this sort may
have operated to prevent Humming-birds becoming
as small as blue-bottles — the actually smallest
species, Calypte belen& of Cuba, being just about
as big as a queen humble-bee, though I doubt if
it is as light as Mellisuga minima, which used, as its
name implies, to be considered the smallest of birds.

The Storm-Petrel, smallest of web-footed fowl,
certainly lays a very large egg for its size, although
the young is helpless ; it is not larger than a Swal-
low, while its egg measures an inch in length, and
this is not purely a matter of disproportion to
reduced size, for Petrels generally lay a large egg.

It is worth noticing that it is among birds which
lay a single egg that the most sensationally numerous
species are found ; the Passenger Pigeon of America
(Ec topis tes migratorius), so recently extinct, whose
columns used to take hours to pass a given spot,
was one of the Pigeons which lay but one egg. The
Pufrln is supposed by some to be the most numerous
bird in Europe, and some of its brother Auks, like
the Guillemot, are also inordinately numerous ; the
extinct Great Auk was wonderfully abundant in its
day, as is the common Gannet still for a bird of
its size, while according to Darwin, the Fulmar
Petrel is said to be the most numerous bird in the
world. This is very doubtful, but he might have
been thinking of another Petrel, the Mutton-bird
(Puffinus brevicauda), which has been seen in enor-

ISO BIRD BEHAVIOUR

mous masses in the South Pacific, quite equalling
the old-time flocks of Passenger Pigeons.

At any rate, such facts as these look as if one-
egg-laying were a good habit for survival ; but at
the same time we must remember that the birds
above quoted are conspicuous for living or at any
rate breeding, in masses, thus giving a false impres-
sion of their numbers as compared to more scattered
species ; that most of them draw their living from
the hospitable storehouse of the sea, and that two
of them did not stand long against human destruc-
tiveness at any rate, and might not have withstood
the invasion of any other carnivore.

Moreover, some of the single- egg-layers are
scarce birds ; the Condor and Lammergeier are
not nearly so common as the smaller Vultures — I
only saw two of the latter during all my residence
in India ; and the large Hornbills, which lay only
one egg, are always rare where the smaller and more
prolific kinds are common. There may be in some
cases good reason why only one egg should be laid,
as will appear in the consideration of some curious
incubation and nursing habits, but it is a quite
possible consideration that birds which lay only one
egg are on the decline as species through infertility,
since one egg a year — and sometimes even one in
two years, as is said to be the case with some of the
great Vultures — is a perilously low output, and the
sea-birds are liable to numerous accidents.

And as to actual numbers, it is highly probable
that such birds as the Quail and Skylark, which are

FERTILITY IN CAPTIVITY 151

common almost all across the Old World, are really
more abundant than any bird which ever nested
in close-packed colonies and flew in cloud-like
flocks.

The fertility of birds laying several eggs appears
to increase with age ; the Swan, for instance, lays
twice as many eggs when mature as she usually does
when starting laying in her second year. It is true
that domestic Hens decline in fertility in a year or
two ; but then they are expected to lay in one
year twenty times as many as their wild ancestress
does. Tame Ducks are more fertile ; with an
equally exaggerated egg-production, they lay a
paying amount of eggs — at any rate in the case of
the prolific Indian Runner breed — for twice as many
years as a hen.

Yet the Muscovy Duck, the Turkey, and the
Goose have not had their fertility increased as a
rule above that of wild birds. These always have
eggs in reserve ; even if the set be only one or
two, others will replace it at least once in case of
accident, and birds which lay several eggs will
under artificial stimulation produce numbers at
times as great as an inferior domestic Hen. An
unfeeling naturalist once made a Wryneck lay forty
eggs in a season by removing them as fast as laid,
a piece of brutality which very probably ended in
sterilizing its subject, as an extreme output in one
year is likely to reduce subsequent prolificacy, as
one would expect. In a case I heard of in which a
hen Silver Pheasant laid seventy eggs in one season,

iS2 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

I was afterwards told that she had laid none at all
the next.

What may be called voluntary overlaying is
rather apt, however, to occur in captive birds ;
the Californian Quail (Lo^hortyx californicus) is
particularly liable to it. It may even occur in
Nature ; thus, a specimen of the Indian Nukta or
Comb-Duck (Sarcidiornis melanonota) has been
captured on a regular deposit of eggs, tier after
tier, amounting to forty in number; and as she
was very emaciated, and one of the eggs was very
small, presumably her last, she had no doubt laid
the lot.

Such cases as these, and exceptional Turkey hens
that lay a hundred eggs, show us how our high-
laying races of Fowls and Ducks have been origin-
ated ; they began a long time ago, since Aristotle
speaks of every-day layers. Birds may deposit
their batch of eggs at the rate of one egg a day, or
lay at intervals of two or more days ; the rule is
not constant for the same group, since the Pigeon
deposits her second egg two days after laying" her
first, and the Collared Dove lays her pair on con-
secutive days. With hens and Turkeys, too, every-
day or intermittent laying varies individually.

Most birds, although keeping about the nest, do
not begin to sit till they have got the full number ;
the rule appears to be universal among those which
have active young, since their broods all come off
at once, but birds may make a mistake or get
impatient, and go off with a partial brood, leaving

THE FATE OF BENJAMIN 153

tardy or insufficiently incubated hatchlings to
perish, in the shell.

Many birds which have nestling young, however,
evidently begin to sit at once, since nestlings of
very different ages may be found in the same nest ;
this is notoriously the case with some Owls — such
as the Barn-Owl — and Hawks, and it is noticeable
with Budgerigars, at any rate in captivity. In
such a case, the youngest member of the brood may
be callow and blind, while the eldest is feathered
and almost ready to fly ; and in such cases it is
curious that the youngest can survive at all, espe-
cially in the case of birds of prey, where it must
offer considerable temptation to the appetites of its
nest-fellows.

Indeed, a case has been recorded (" Notes on
Cage-birds," ed. Greene, 2nd series) in which a
brood of young Barn-Owls when shut up in a room
with a supply of meat nevertheless killed and ate
the Benjamin of the family, and a brood of Canaries
I reared myself all hatched out on different days,
the five eggs having been laid, as usual with such
birds, consecutively, with the result that the
youngest, which was a little overdue and helped
out by me with a pin, was fatally crushed, with the
next youngest, by the other three. To avoid such
occurrences, it is the custom of many canary-
fanciers to take away the eggs as fast as they are
laid, replacing them with a nest-egg, and putting
them back when the complement is complete ; but
this is not always done, and the wild small birds

154 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

generally get on successfully with their broods, no
doubt not being tempted to sit so closely as Canaries,
owing to the need of seeking food for themselves.

I noticed with the Dabchicks which bred on the
Indian Museum pond that they seemed to attach
no value whatever to their eggs till they had the
full set ; the first laid were allowed to lie, con-
spicuous as they were by their whiteness, uncovered
in the nest, which was only among the low-growing
kalmi or water- convolvulus or among thin reeds.
I can only conclude that the eggs escaped the
attention of the numerous House-Crows simply by
the dread these worthies had of risking their pre-
cious persons in the attempt to pick up an object
lying practically on the surface of the water, for I
found they did not dare to pick up bread thrown
into the pond, although the same species of Crow
down by the Hooghly picked food from the water
as a matter of course.

When the Dabchicks began incubating, however,
they were careful enough, and always covered the
eggs before leaving them, after the usual manner of
Grebes ; curiously enough, however, though they
kept the nest piled up while they were brooding
the young on it, they did not raise it when they had
eggs and these were menaced by a flood, and lost
two sittings in this way in consequence. Under
similar circumstances a Swan, as is well known,
will raise her nest, but then she is always ready to
do this, if material is within reach of her bill.

I noticed that with these Dabchicks incubation

KEEPING THE EGGS COOL 155

was very largely left to the sun, or to the heat
generated by the decaying weed in which the eggs
lay, for they were often both off the nest at all
and any times of the day ; and this habit of hatch-
ing otherwise than by constant incubation has
been often noticed. The Black-back Courser
(Pluvianus agyptius) of the African river-banks
buries its eggs in the sand and damps them to
prevent them getting too hot ; Sand-Grouse on the
plains of India have been found sitting on the eggs
not to warm them but to keep them cool, since
under the blazing sun they actually began to cook
if the birds were scared off for a little time ; and
the Ostrich has quite a reputation for letting the
sun hatch its eggs, though this only happens in the
more tropical part of its range — in South Africa it
sits like any other bird.

Ordinary passerine birds may even in exceptional
circumstances make use of the sun as an incubating
. agent ; in Hume's " Nests and Eggs of Indian
Birds " there is a record of a pair of House-Mynahs
(Acridotberes tristis) which built in a hole under the
edge of a roof fully exposed to the Indian hot-
weather sun, with the result that both of the pair
were always to be seen off the nest, the cock singing
vociferously and thrashing casual Crows after the
usual manner of his kind.

There is a whole family of birds, allied to the
Game-birds, which carry matters further, and never
sit on their eggs under any circumstances, these
being the Megapodes or Mound-builders, referred

156 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

to above as producing young which are able to
shift for themselves as soon as hatched. Owing to
one of the largest of them, the Australian Brush-
Turkey (Cathe 'turns lath ami), being frequently im-
ported, their habits in at least one case are fairly
well known, and have besides been studied in their
native haunts in the case of several other species.
Generally speaking, they live in Australia and
New Guinea, but one, the Maleo (Megacepbalon
maleo), is found in Celebes, and the birds of the
typical genus Megapodius, which are more like large
dull Partridges than anything else, are widely spread
from the Nicobars to well out in the Pacific Islands
— Ninafou and Samoa. All lay very large eggs for
their size, so that here at any rate large size of egg
corresponds with high development of the young
when hatched, and make up their natural incubators
with their powerful feet, in which the hind toe is
well developed and low set, although they do not
perch more than the typical Game-birds.

Their claws are often very long and strong, and
they present the peculiarity, only found elsewhere
among birds in the Cuckoos, of having the second
and third toes, i.e. the inner and middle front ones,
joined by a short web at the base, whereas this
web, where it exists in other birds, is either between
the outer and middle toes — third and fourth — as in
the Herons, or connects all the toes, as in typical
Game-birds. I mention this point because it is
commonly supposed that small points not obviously
connected with habits, and hence of value in classi-

NATURAL INCUBATORS 157

fication, are only to be discovered in bird anatomy,
whereas they occur externally also.

The Mound-birds always lay several eggs, and
always bury them ; but their procedure in this
respect varies : the Maleo simply inters them in
beaches of black volcanic sand, and is supposed to
deposit them in the hatching-holes at intervals of
a fortnight. The Brush-Turkey hens, however,
lay every two days, and the species of this family
generally scratch up mounds of earth, sand, and
dead vegetable matter, that of the Brush-Turkey
having a circumference of three dozen yards, with
a height of a little over two feet.

In this species, as observed in captivity at all events,
the male does all the work of preparing the mound
and looking after the eggs, when laid and buried,
driving the hen or hens off as soon as they have
laid, and then covering them deeply or thinly as
occasion seems to demand. As many as twelve to
fifteen eggs may be laid by one of these birds, but
sometimes several pairs may share a mound, though
this seems not to be the case with the typical
Megapodii, which also use more sand and less
vegetable matter than the Brush-Turkey. The
latter bird breeds in the preserves of the Duke of
Bedford, and did so in the Zoo in a quite small
enclosure during the Bartlett period, and of late
years when Mr. Bertling was head-keeper.

When hatched, the young scratch their way out
or are dug out by the old birds ; and not only are
they hardy when hatched, but their development

158 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

in the egg appears to be able to proceed in some
cases without any extraneous heat, such as is cer-
tainly generated in the Brush-Turkey's mound by
the decaying vegetable matter. More than a
dozen years ago, some eggs of the Nicobar Megapode
were taken from a mound in the islands and put
on board the Government ship Elphinstone. Here
they were allowed to lie about on deck in a bucket,
and when the ship got up to the British settlement
in the Andamans they were put away in a cup-
board ; nevertheless some chicks at all events
hatched out and were reared, and I saw these at the
Calcutta Zoo, where they were sent when full
grown. It would appear, however, that the tem-
perature in these Megapodes' mounds is not high,
the part where the eggs are buried being if anything
cool to the touch.

The Mound-birds are a group with a long incu-
bation-period, the Brush-Turkey, a bird of the
common Fowl's size, taking six weeks ; the incuba-
tion-period of birds being a group-character or
minor habit, differing in length according to the
family to which the bird belongs, but, in the case
of birds of the same family, being generally in
proportion to the size of the species, large birds
generally taking a longer time than small ones.

Thus, among our familiar tame birds, the Fowl,
as most people know, takes three weeks, the Turkey
and Peacock a month ; the common Duck takes a
month, the large Muscovy Duck five weeks, the
Goose four, the Swan six. Both the Duck and

SIZE AND SITTING-TIME 159

Fowl belong to long-period families ; among the
short-period birds we have in domestication, the
Pigeon takes seventeen and the Collared Dove
fifteen days, and the Canary a fortnight, both
Pigeons and Passerines having short incubation
periods.

Owing to this family limitation of periods, we get
some very curious contrasts ; such big birds as the
Crowned Pigeon (Goura coronata) and the Raven
only taking three weeks, while the tiny Painted
Quail (Excalfactoria sinensis), no bigger than a
Sparrow, and the Teal, not larger than a Pigeon,
take as long, and the Storm-Petrel even five weeks,
in spite of its small size.

It will be seen that however small the bird, the
reduction of its incubation-period does not keep
pace with the size ; nor does the increase in the
case of large species. Some of the smallest Finches
only sit for eleven days, and even the Humming-birds
are only credited with a day less ; the longest incuba-
tion period is that of the Emu, in which the devoted
male sits for nine weeks, longer than the Ostrich,
with its six or seven, but this bird belongs to a
distinct family, all the clans of flightless giants being
very well differentiated anatomically, and evidently
representing independent degenerations from flying
ancestors, though of an early type.

In a few cases the smaller bird in the same family
may take a longer time than a larger ; thus Part-
ridges and Gold Pheasants take longer to hatch than
Fowl chicks. The case of the common Pheasant,

160 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

which also takes longer, need not be mentioned,
because the wild fowl is not so large as this bird,
and curiously enough increase of size in domestica-
tion, however great, does not seem to affect the
incubation period to any noticeable extent.

There does not seem to be any general correlation
between the activity of the chick and the period of
incubation ; the young of the H£mipodes or Button-
Quails, birds about the size of Quails proper, hatch
in only twelve days, although downy and active,
while the helpless nestlings of the Budgerigar, an even
smaller bird, take nearly three weeks, Parrots being
a long-period group ; and the nestlings of birds of
prey require a long time to hatch, the largest, the
Condor, even requiring six weeks. On the whole
there is a tendency for water-fowl to take a longer
time than land-birds, no aquatic groups having a
really short period, though none take so long as
some of the great runners. The period of incuba-
tion does not vary more than a day or two unless
over a month, when the variation may be a matter
of several days, as in the case of the Swan and
Ostrich.

As the temperatures of different groups vary,
incubation may be hastened artificially in some
cases ; when Mandarin Ducks were first bred at
the Zoo, now nearly seventy years ago, it was
noticed that those of their eggs which were put
under hens hatched two days earlier than those
which the Ducks themselves were allowed to sit
upon. M. Rogeron, in discussing Hens as foster-

TESTING THE TIME-LIMIT 161

parents for these and other fancy ducklings, con-
demns some Hens as altogether too hot, so that
the eggs entrusted to them come out so much too
soon that the young are weakly and unsettled, and
die off through sheer inability to live.

The frequency with which eggs of birds have
been placed in domestic conditions under other
individuals or species has brought out conspicuously
the great difference in patience in sitting birds ;
Hens and Turkeys will often sit out two periods
if compelled or even allowed, while Pigeons refuse
to incubate more than a day or two over their
limit, and I do not remember any case of water-
fowl exceeding their time. However, the Hooded
Crow, although one would have thought this
cunning bird not easily duped, will, according to
Graham in his " Birds of lona and Mull," sit so
far over her time when her eggs have been removed,
boiled, and replaced by boys, that she is easily
captured through the weakness and exhaustion
caused by this unnaturally protracted incubation.

Evidently the Crows are not immune from the
extreme mental upset which occurs during the
incubation period ; poultry-keepers well know that
the most effectual cure for a broody Hen is to
place her in a coop with barred floor and supported
on legs, for some Hens will sit almost indefinitely,
not only on any object they can imagine to be an
egg, but even on an empty nest. By making the
bird continually perch, however,- the delusion
becomes impossible of maintenance, especially if
ii

162 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

her mind is distracted by seeing the other Fowls
enjoying life outside her prison.

The domestic Hen is not alone in being able to
solace her mind with a substitute for an egg ;
Hume in his " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds "
gives an amusing account of a Kite which sat upon
a pill-box until rain wrecked this treasure ; and
a pair of Cranes nesting in captivity, but unable to
produce eggs, fished up a couple of pieces of brick
from the bottom of their pond and made believe
they were eggs. Facts like these are of importance
when we consider the ease with which birds, even
of intelligent kinds, may be duped into caring for
eggs of parasitic species.

There is, as a matter of fact, a physical as well as
mental change in a sitting bird ; the abdomen
becomes inflamed and bare, constituting the " hatch-
ing spot," and no doubt it is irritation here, not a
self-sacrificing feeling, which makes Ducks pull off
the down of their breasts which they then use as a
nest-lining. In the hole-building species indeed
this practically constitutes all the nest, but in
tropical Ducks, although these often, in fact per-
haps usually, breed in holes of trees, this lining is
scanty, and may be wanting altogether.

The commercial importance of the female Eider's
down — the drake contributes none, apparently even
in an emergency — is well known, but a physio-
logical fact about this bird which is less familiar
is its power of enduring a fast while sitting, at any
rate in captivity, Mr. St. Quintin, one of the few

SUPPRESSION OF SCENT 163

people who have bred the species, recording that a
bird of his seemed never to leave the nest during
the whole time of sitting, so that chickweed growing
around grew all over its back.

In any case birds need little food while sitting,
and their excreta are concentrated in a remarkable
way ; any one who keeps Fowls or Pigeons has
noticed that when a sitting hen leaves the nest
she voids a large mass all at once, and the scent
appears herein to be concentrated, thus explaining
the fact that the body-scent of a sitting game-
bird, so perceptible at other times to the nose of a
questing beast of prey, becomes suppressed, being
as it were driven inwards.

In spite of the wearisome nature of the task as
it appears to u^, it is evident that birds must
experience great satisfaction in the action of
incubation, as also in the more toilsome but
seemingly more interesting process of rearing the
young, since they are so irresistibly impelled to it
that in many cases it is repeated several times
during the year ; in fact, some tame birds, such as
fancy Pigeons, Canaries, and Budgerigars, would
endanger their health and produce weakly offspring
by continually breeding — in the case of the last
even in out- door aviaries in mid- winter — if their
owners did not by removing nesting facilities, or
even by separating the sexes, put a stop to propaga-
tion after a reasonable number of broods had been
raised.

Birds which have active young are less philo-

1 64 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

progenitively inclined, the rearing of one brood
satisfying as a rule both wild and domestic species
of this character for the year, even the pampered
park Mallard not breeding in autumn, though they
pair ; and among the birds which have helpless
young, or at any rate young which have to be fed,
the least fertile, i.e. those which lay but one egg
at a time, are also the least apt to want to repeat
the process. The diving rock-birds which throng
our cliffs, for instance, depart to sea quite content
with their single chick.

Pigeons, however, are quite willing and anxious
to repeat their task of rearing twins as often as
occasion allows, that is to say, as long as they can
get plenty of food. I have seen Wood-Pigeons in
Regent's Park, where conditions are exceptionally
favourable, pairing at Christmas in very cold
weather, and in India nests of the commonest
species of Turtle-Doves are to be found practically
all the year round, so that these birds apparently
are always ready to breed, except, no doubt, when
moulting, at which time the most enthusiastic
nesters have perforce to postpone operations.

Ordinary passerine birds, also, frequently rear
two or even more broods in a season, so that even
when their sittings are individually less in number
than those of birds with active chicks, their total
output for the year is larger. There are also certain
individual species which have a special bent for
procreation, and will commence nesting on less
provocation, if I may so express it, than any others ;

POPULAR RECORD-BREAKERS 165

such are the birds that are commended as " good
breeders" by aviarists, and in wild nature in this
country we may notice that it is the Song- Thrush
and the Robin which generally contribute the
" early bird's nest " newspaper records, leaving even
such prolific birds as the Blackbird and the Sparrow
far behind in the race for actual priority of com-
mencement, though these may equal the output
before the year is over.

Generally speaking, however, it may be said that
wild birds nest only once a year, and some of the
large birds of prey are said only to do so in alternate
years.

CHAPTER VI

Propagation (continued) — Nest-making not purely a bird-habit
— Eggs laid without nests — Types of nests — Parasitic nesting
— Parasitic layers, like Cuckoos and Cow-birds — Degreci of
development of parasitic instinct.

BIRDS are not alone in incubating their eggs any
more than in laying eggs at all ; for pythons among
snakes incubate their eggs, coiling round them
and undergoing a rise of temperature, while the
Echidna of Australia, one of the only two egg-laying
mammalian types — the other oviparous beast being
the Duck-billed Platypus — carries her single egg in
a temporarily formed pouch. The two eggs of the
Platypus are laid in her burrow.

Neither is nest-making confined to birds, for,
putting aside the extraordinary structure made by
many insects, we have nest-makers among the
vertebrates in the persons of many fish— including
our little stickleback — in some tropical frogs, and
in numerous beasts from the gorilla to the harvest-
mouse. These points are worth mentioning, be-
cause some naturalists theorize about birds' nests
as if nest-making were a special bird habit, whereas
for all we know the particular reptile which pre-
ceded the first definite bird may have been a nest-
builder already.

166

INCUBATION WHILE STANDING 167

Be that as it may, many existing birds make nests
no more elaborate than those of some reptiles ; the
practice of the Mound-builders in burying their
eggs is much the same as that followed by crocodiles
and tortoises, and the African or common crocodile
(Crocodilus niloticus) has been observed in Mada-
gascar sleeping on her deposit of eggs, and is be-
lieved to keep on hand to dig up the young when
they hatch, and take them off. This is very like
the action of the Mound-birds — and also of those
fish which guard the nest, aerate the eggs, and pro-
tect the young — and as the crocodiles are the
nearest related of present-day reptiles to birds, as
their anatomy and bird-like eggs testify, it is
tempting to regard the Megapodes as the most
primitive of nesters, especially considering the
advanced state of their young on exclusion from the
egg. If, however, a previous coat of down is shed
in the shell, they are not so primitive as they look,
probably, but have gone back to the simple life.

In any case, there are birds which do far less in
the way of nesting. The two giant Penguins, the
King (ApUnodytes -pennanti) and the Emperor
(A. forsteri), for instance, do not put their single
egg down anywhere, but keep it pressed up against
the skin of the abdomen, which bulges over it, and
supported by the feet, which are kept close together,
and so incubate standing. The bird thus cannot
walk freely, but it can shuffle about awkwardly, and
thus move its egg from place to place if necessary.
The habit seems reasonable enough in the Emperor,

1 68 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

which breeds on the Antarctic ice at mid-winter, of
all seaaons, and so needs to protect the egg and
chick from cold before everything, but in the King,
which does not reach the Antarctic circle at any
time, and breeds on land, the habit seems less
significant.

It is curious, too, that as the great danger of the
infant Emperor's life is the scrimmage for its pos-
session which results when it is seen, all childless
Emperors desiring to foster it, the only break in
the whiteness of its down is the black skull-cap,
making its little head conspicuous against the
white belly of the parent, and thus proclaiming the
possession of the treasure. The young King is quite
different, being dark brown all over, though the
parents are so much alike. It is easy to see why
these birds only lay a single egg, and also why this
is the case with the Guillemots and Razorbill, and
with the White Noddies, which have the next
simplest nidification, simply laying the egg on an
unprepared surface and keeping constantly on it.

The nesting-places of the Auks above mentioned
are high cliff-ledges, often even sloping seawards, so
that the egg, in spite of its sub-conical shape,
would roll off if one or other of the birds did
not constantly sit on it, which they do facing
the rock, no doubt so as to minimize the chance of
dragging the egg off with them when leaving it.

But that of the tropical White Noddies, re-
nowned for their spirit-like appearance and uncanny
tameness, is not only a point of a coral reef, but

PHENOMENAL FORESIGHT 169

equally or more often the branch of a tree or the
broad leaf of a palm ; any slight depression is
chosen if possible, but often even this is dispensed
with. The bird covers and leaves its egg very
gingerly, and is credited with such foresight as, when
laying on a leaf, so to time the hatching that if the
leaf withers and droops, by the time the slope has
become too dangerous, the egg will have hatched.
The chick has great powers of holding on, having
particularly long middle claws ; the hind toe is
also of normal size, not rudimentary as in other
Terns, and the feet are only half-webbed. As the
plumage is also scanty for a water-bird, and the
bird nests inland and even eats fruit, we have here
perhaps a primitive Gull-type.

Other birds that simply lay their eggs on the
spot chosen without any nest are the Nightjars
proper, though the Owlet- Night jars lay in holes
in trees, and the Frog-mouths, members of the
same family as the last (Podargida) make nests, of
sticks in the case of the well-known Australian
More-pork (Podargus cuvieri) and of a curious pad
of down on a branch in the case of the Eared
Frog- mouths (Batrachostomus).

Simple deposition of the eggs on the ground is
unusual in birds of the type to which Nightjars
belong, but is not uncommon among running or
swimming birds; Divers, Sand-Grouse, Bustards, and
many of the Game-birds, Plovers and Terns making
either no nest at all, a mere " scrape," or a very
meagre collection of bents, leaves, etc. The habit

1 70 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

varies, for in the same ternery some nests will
have practically no furnishing, and others be fairly
well provided.

Some birds, such as the Ringed Plover when
breeding inland, and the Adelie Penguin of the
Antarctic (Pygoscelis adelite) build nests of stones,
which in the latter case are indeed the only available
material ; and the male Penguin " proposes " by
offering the hen a pebble. In the case of this
Penguin the nesting-site appears to belong to the
hen, which arrives first and takes possession ; but
in some cases at all events nesting-site property is
vested in the male bird, which brings his hen to
his chosen haunt, or arrives there first and guards
it for her, when the two have been separated on
migration, as male birds generally arrive first.

The next simplest plan to laying the eggs on the
ground is laying them in a hole therein, or in a
rock or tree, without any nest ; this is a common
practice, especially characteristic of Parrots, Owls,
and some other non-passerine perching birds, such
as Toucans and Hornbills. Holes often have to
be cleaned out, and so this practice passes naturally
into the widely-spread custom of the bird excavating
its burrow itself; in fact, the two habits are hard
to separate, as often the same species will occupy a
hole if it is there already, or make one for itself if
such accommodation is wanting.

Burrowing is found in scattered members of
many groups, such as the Burrowing Owl (Speotyto
cunicularia) of America, the Sand-Martin and some

CONCAVE-CASQUED HORNBILL.

This Asiatic species is shown with the nesting female characteristically walled up in a

hole in a tree.

170

BIRDS AS BURROWERS 171

other Swallows, the Minera (Geositta cunicularia),
a South American passerine bird, some Penguins,
and the Puffin amongst the Auks ; but it is espe-
cially characteristic of birds which sally forth for their
prey from a perch and return to it, using their feet
but little, such as Kingfishers, Bee-eaters, Todies,
and Motmots, and of Petrels among the sea-birds.
Bee- eaters are most inveterate burrowers, forming
regular warrens and even sometimes burrowing into
level ground as Petrels do, most bird-burrowers
generally liking a bank for their tunnels.

It has been said that animals which do not get
their living by burrowing do not show any special
adaptation for it, and the Sand-Martin is a case in
point ; but the Kingfishers and other burrowing
perchers, where burrowing is a family habit, are
noteworthy for the union of their toes, forming a
flat broad sole, which must be of some use in throw-
ing out the sand. It is true, however, that Horn-
bills have similar feet, although they do not burrow,
but nest in holes in trees as said above ; but they
are near akin to the other joined- toed families.

Kingfishers when starting a burrow have been
seen to dart at the bank and dislodge the earth by
this charge, the pair relieving each other and
repeating the action until a big enough depression
was made to allow them to get to work with their
feet as well. Parrots with their gnawing beaks
and powerful short legs are better adapted for
burrowing than any other birds, and some do thus
nest in banks, such as the Patagonian Conure (Cyano-

1 72 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

lyseus fatagonus), one of the few Parrots living in
temperate and cold climates, as a usual thing, and
the well-known Lemon-crested and Rose-breasted
Cockatoos occasionally.

The strangest of burrowers is, however, the
remarkable pied Crab-Plover (Dromas ardeola) of
the shores of Eastern seas, for one would never expect
a long-legged wader like this to burrow ; yet it
does so, and lays at the end of its bow-shaped tunnel
one large white egg, having in fact the nesting-
habits of a Petrel. This bird is a primitive type,
being curiously intermediate in appearance between
a Plover and a Gull, with half- webbed feet provided
with a well- developed hind toe, unlike the families
to which it is most nearly related. As to what
long-legged birds can do in the way of digging, I
never realized this till I saw the cock Rhea making
his " Scrape," which he does in a crouching position,
and nevertheless thus uses his powerful limbs to
great effect.

Among the Woodpeckers, the Ground Wood-
pecker of the Cape (Geocolaptes olivaceus) burrows
in banks, but, as every naturalist knows, these birds
generally cut out their nesting-holes in trees ; this
is all part of the day's work for the Woodpecker,
which is a carpenter by trade, but the Barbets do it
too, although not pecking wood otherwise, and
curiously enough have a fancy for beginning the hole
from the underside of the bough, so that they have
to commence operations upside down.

Where burrowing or tree-hole-cutting is a family

AN ABNORMAL KINGFISHER 173

habit, no nest is made by the bird, the eggs being
laid on the floor of the hole ; in fact, such birds
throw out all they find inside a hole, and the
Starling greatly annoys and even dispossesses the
much larger and more powerful Green Woodpecker
by carrying nesting-stuff into his borings. When,
however, the hole-builder, burrower or merely
appropriator, is a member of a family whose general
custom is to nest outside, something like the normal
nest of the family, though often a very slovenly
one, is made, as by the Sand-Martin, Jackdaw,
Stock-Dove, and Sheldrake, and the many kinds
of Tits.

This points to the hole-building in these cases
being a recent habit, but some members of genuine
troglodyte families may as an abnormality build
a nest ; Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker has found the
Indian White-breasted Kingfisher (Halcyon smyr-
nensis) doing so, the structure being a domed one
of moss. There is some connection between making
a domed nest and breeding in holes, for, as every
one knows, the House-Sparrow, whose nest is
naturally a domed one in a tree, readily takes to
nesting in holes, and so do many of the small
foreign Finches commonly imported.

In the case of the Tree- Sparrow, the hole- building
habit has apparently nearly superseded the tree-
nesting one, a nest of this species anywhere but in
a hole — of a tree in most places in Europe, or of a
building in the Himalayas, Japan, and a few other
places — being cited as a notable exception. This is

174 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

of interest, because the Tree-Sparrow is in some
respects the most advanced species of the true
Sparrows, having in both sexes a coloration which
is masculine only in its nearest allies, and the
widest distribution, for the House-Sparrow, though
actually found in more countries, has in many cases
been transported deliberately by man, whereas its
rival colonizes on its own account.

Nesting with a covering of some sort, found
existing or constructed, overhead, is a habit of
which birds which possess it are very tenacious,
and however intelligent they may be in other ways,
such birds seldom venture to nest in the open ;
of this the Sparrow, Starling, and Sheldrake are
conspicuous examples. Nevertheless among birds
which make nests as opposed to burrowers, dome-
builders are the exception, most constructed nests
being open, either mere platforms or piles, such as
those of the Woodpigeon and the Moorhen, or
advancing to the state of a more or less deep cup,
such as is built by most passerine birds.

Such nests with elevated sides or domed roofs
may be built by a process of felting, as when made
with moss and similar substances, or actually
woven with a skill which is at times most admirable.
Unfortunately we are not well off in the north
for very skilful nest-builders, and the only woven
nest of a British-breeding bird is that of the Golden
Oriole, a species unfortunately too much persecuted
to have other than the rarest chances of exhibiting
its skill ; the nest is a woven hammock, suspended

TROUPIALS AND ORIOLES 175

in the fork of a bough, and this is the type of nest
built by the true Orioles generally.

The Troupials, wrongly called Orioles in America,
from their frequently similar yellow- and- black
coloration and general habits, build, however, far
more wonderful nests, though curiously enough
these are woven also ; their constructions are long
bags like the old-fashioned netted purses, with the
entrance hole at the top near the point of suspension
to the bough. Woven pendent nests, but with the
entrance at the opposite end, are also made by
the Weaver-birds, whose stronghold is in Africa,
though the Baya (Ploceus baya), one of the best
builders, inhabits South-west Asia. The males in
these birds also are commonly yellow and black,
forming a curious but possibly significant correlation
of a type of colouring elsewhere very unusual in
birds with the supremest of skill in nest-building.

In the nest of the Bayas proper (Ploceus baya and
P. atrigula), which are about as perfect as any of these
Weavers in building ability, we get first a suspension
cord attached to the end of the thin bough or
section of a palm-frond which bears the nest ;
then the bulb of the nest itself, which at one side
passes downwards into the long entrance- spout. A
section of the interior would show that the nest-
cup is divided from the entrance-spout by a firmly
bound partition, which prevents the young falling
out, and is also used by them as a perch when
older. When the nest is about half-finished — i.e.
all but the cup and spout, the top half being done —

176 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

this partition, then a mere bar dividing two holes,
like the handle of an inverted basket, forms a
useful perch for the bird working inside, a position
which is taken up by the hen, which passes out the
ends of the material as they are thrust in to her by
the cock.

It is probably owing to the want of this feminine
assistance that the nest is so often left unfinished
in captivity, and that so many half-built nests are
found in the wild colonies, the building of these
being the amusement of the males when unoccupied.
Many of these will also go on lengthening the
tubular entrance after the sitting has begun ; it
will be noticed that this is always left loose and
unbound at the end, such apparent negligence
being an additional safeguard against attacks by
snakes and other enemies. Another safeguarding
instinct noticeable in these birds is that of hanging
the nest whenever possible over water ; it has
been found that even the water in the bathing-pan
in an aviary incites some Weavers at all events to
nest directly over this.

The Baya itself is not commonly imported com-
pared with some of the African Weavers, far the
commonest bird of the kind in the trade being
the small Red- billed Weaver of Africa (Quelea
quelea), which anybody can buy cheaply and watch
in any bird-room or back-garden aviary. Its nest,
however, like that of many other Weavers, cannot
be compared with that of the Baya, as it lacks both
the suspension rope, being merely woven in amongst

RESOURCEFUL CRAFTSMEN 177

twigs, and the downwardly elongated entrance-
spout, being simply a round nest with, an entrance-
hole below. It is, however, the skill in working
the material that is the great attraction in Weavers'
nests, not the exact form assumed, which is not
more wonderful than that of many other nests.

The Baya may at times exhibit what looks more
like reason than instinct in getting its material ;
cocoanut fibre or ordinary grass will do, but it has
been found building with grass which was far too
broad ; and in this case the bird alighted on the
great blades, bit down to a sufficiently practical
breadth, then went further down the blade till it
had the right length, bit into the blade again, and
then flew off, tearing away the strip as it went.
As this grass also had a serrated edge, so that it
could only be passed through one way, it is difficult
to refuse reasoning powers to this particular colony
of Weavers at all events.

In the Weaver the constructive instinct is very
much stronger in the male than in the female, but,
though many birds share the labour of nest-building
xwith their mates, the constructive instinct is com-
monly more feminine than masculine, and some
birds leave the construction entirely to the hen.
The male, however, often supplies material, as
generally with Sparrows and Pigeons, or he may
accompany the female to and fro in her trips to
get it, no doubt to keep watch over her safety
while thus pre-occupied. He always takes some
interest if he cares about the nest at all, which

12

178 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

many males, especially among the Game-birds, do
not. The male Globose Curassow (Craoc globicera),
however, seems to be the chief constructor himself.

Nests of the felted type, well exemplified by that
of our Chaffinch in a cup form, are often built in a
pensile and domed pattern as well as woven ones,
especially in the tropics, where the abundance and
variety of enemies render necessary in the case of
all defenceless species either inaccessibility of the
nest or its very perfect concealment.

In India, for instance, nearly the only nests one
ever ordinarily sees besides those of Crows, Kites,
and other strong birds are the pensile ones of the
Bayas. Now and then one may find the pensile
felted nest of a Sun-bird, but this is often well
concealed by looking like a bunch of rubbish ;
indeed, it is made of all sorts of odds and ends —
bits of dry leaf, masses of caterpillar " frass," and
so forth, matted together with spiders' webs, a
great stand-by for birds which build these pensile
felted nests.

I have even seen a pair of the Amethyst-rumped
Sun-bird (Cinnyris zeylonica), the commonest kind
in Calcutta, come into my verandah to carry off
scraps of the grey fluff which is swept out of rooms,
for use as nesting material.

Extremely beautiful felted nests are built on
the pensile principle by the tiny Flower-peckers
(Dic&ida) of the Eastern Tropics, minute birds
haunting tree-tops. These, nests are matted
together with cobweb, and are so well made that

FELTING AND TAILORING 179

they can be folded up without injury ; the entrance
is near the top, and they look more like little wash-
leather purses than anything one could imagine a
bird could make — in fact, with the exception of
some mud-nests presently to be described, they are
the most artificial-looking products of any form of
bird industry.

The felted erect oval nest of our Long- tailed Tit
has been long and deservedly admired, but that of
the Cape Tit (JEgithalus capensis) is even more
remarkable, composed as it is completely of plant-
down, so closely felted that it is like cloth, and
provided with a tubular entrance, not at the
bottom, as in Weavers' nests, but near the top.
Stark observed the hen closed this by pinching its
edges together when she left the nest, either to
keep the latter warm or to keep foes out, which
no doubt it would do, for at any rate he once saw
the mistress of the little house herself fail to get
in again easily. Under this vestibule is a little
pocket, in which the cock is supposed to sleep, and
very likely does, Tits generally sleeping in some
hole, or at any rate not on a perch in the usual
way.

Besides weaving and the simpler process of felting,
birds occasionally practise sewing, though this form
of industry is rare. The best-known sewn nest
is that of the little olive-green Wren-like Warbler
called from this habit the Tailor-bird, and one
of the most common — and noisiest — inhabitants of
Indian gardens. The nest itself is simply the

i8o BIRD BEHAVIOUR

lining of a cup made by sewing two or more leaves
together, or the edges of one large one, and is very
hard to find. The bill is of course the needle, and
the thread is the raw silk of caterpillar-cocoons,
which holds by reason of the resistance of this
stuff to the edges of the pierced leaf, for the story
that the bird makes a knot is a slight exaggeration,
just like the tale of its picking up a dead leaf and
sewing it to a live one. Such leaves may be found
sewn together, but this is when one leaf has withered
after being sewn.

Several other small Warblers make sewn nests in
India, and so do some of the large dull-coloured
Sunbirds of the genus Arachnothera, known as
Spider-hunters ; in this case the nest is secured to
a broad leaf by having part of the material pushed
through holes bored in this, but the structure is
not nearly so perfect as the little Tailor's.

So many birds mix the basket-work of their nest
with mud — even the Bay a putting in a few patches
— that complete nests of primitive earthenware are
not surprising, though some fibre is generally, if
not always, used. Such nests are familiar to us
in the case of. the House-Martin and Swallow, the
former being far the more perfect type. For these
the birds simply take up the mud in mouthfuls, and
judiciously build little at a time, lest they should
overweight the foundations, as White long ago
observed in his admirable chapters on these birds.

Some Indian and Australian Swallows, such as
the Striated Swallow (Hirundo striolata) in the

TYPES OF PENSILE NESTS.

i. Philippine Red Sunbird; 2. Cape Penduline Tit or " Kapok- vogel "; 3. Indian Tailor-
bird; 4. Blood-breasted Flower-pecker.

[.Copyright, Hutchinson & Co.

180

NEST OF CENTRAL- AMERICAN SWIFT.

This species (Panyptila sancti-hieronymi) builds a nest not unlike that
of a Weaver-bird in shape.

THE BIRDS AS POTTERS 181

former country, and Fairy Martin (Lageno-plastes
ariel) in the latter, make even better nests than
the House-Martin, resembling mud jars attached
by the base to their support, which is commonly a
wall, these Swallows, like most of their group,
readily availing themselves of man-made facilities.

Three Australian birds, not apparently very
nearly related and not at all like Swallows, the Grey
Struthidea (Struthidea cinerea), White- winged
Chough (Cor cor ax melanorbamphus), and Magpie-
Lark or Pied Grallina (Grallina picata) distinguish
themselves by making nests in the form of mud
bowls, so extraordinarily true that if they were
not attached to a support they could not be dis-
tinguished from crude human-made pottery.

Another wonderful mud- worker is the South
American Oven-bird, whose domed nest, seated on a
bough or post, has a side porch which renders
invasion of the nesting chamber almost impossible.
This is a very heavy nest, takes months to make,
and lasts for years. The bird is a homely one, and
a popular favourite, being called, like our Redbreast,
by a Christian name, in this case " Alonzo Garcia "
or " Alonzito," and credited with not working on
Sundays, no doubt because it takes a spell off now
and then. A close ally of this bird, curiously
enough, is the burrowing " Minera," which reminds
one of the great difference of the nesting-habits
of the House- and Sand-Martins.

A combination of hole-building and mud-masonry
is found in the nest of the Nuthatch, which has the

1 84 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

last sort of nest one would expect such a bird to
make ; and among the Parrots, which have been
accused of being too clumsy to build nests at all,
the Quaker Parrakeet (Myopsittacus monachus) of
South America not only builds a stick nest with
roof and porch, but goes in for tenement nesting,
several birds building in one clump, though the
actual rooms are separate.

A few non-Passerines build mud nests, such as
that extraordinary fruit- eating ally of the Nightjars,
the South American Guacharo (Steatornis cari-
pensis), no doubt a primitive form, as its beak is
less specialized or degenerate than a Nightjar's, and
not so abnormally enlarged as a Frog-mouth's.
Among the waders, Flamingoes and the Sun-
Bittern also build mud nests, but in all these cases
the nest is a mere cheese-shaped hassock, as it were,
displaying no special merit in architecture.

It is interesting, however, to find that other
birds than Passerines have so much constructive
ability, clumsy or not ; and in this connection it
should be noted that the Broadbills, Passerines of
a very primitive and clumsy type, build pendent
nests nearly as good as those of Weavers. Nor can
we say that birds of special intelligence will neces-
sarily build an elaborate nest, for the clever Crow
tribe, with the exception of the common Magpie
with its domed nest of thorny branches, build nests
of the most ordinary type for passerine birds.

Parasitic nesting is extremely common among
birds, especially among hole-building species which

5 "3

FLAMINGO ON ITS NEST.

Showing the sitting position, which is rarely assumed by the Flamingo except when

incubating.

SWIFTLETS AND THEIR NESTS.

These Swiftlets are the smallest of the family, not being so large as the Sand-martin
among the Swallows.

IN SEARCH OF LODGINGS 185

do not bore for themselves or are anxious to avoid
the trouble ; thus many birds avail themselves
gladly of the nest-borings of Woodpeckers, from
Tits to tree-breeding Ducks such as the Golden-
eye and Carolina. Such Ducks, with Owls and
Kestrels, are among the most inveterate of nesting
parasites, few of these birds having much notion
of making a nest for itself. They are often not
particular about a hole, but will adopt an open
nest ; thus, the Long-eared Owl gladly utilizes
the shallow nest of a Wood- Pigeon.

The hole-builders indeed often act on the prin-
ciple of " any port in a storm " ; they will parasitize
mammals as well as other birds, since the Stock-
Dove, Tawny Owl, Sheldrake, and Puffin all
utilize rabbit-holes in this country, and in America
the Burrowing-Owl inhabits those of the prairie-
marmot — the so-called prairie-dog (Cynomys lu-
dovicianus) — in the northern part of the western
continent, and of a much bigger rodent, the vizcacha
(Lagostomus trichodactylus) in the southern hemi-
sphere.

In England the Sparrow-Hawk, generally, unlike
the Kestrel, an independent nest-builder, has been
found nesting on top of the drey of a Squirrel
which was occupied at the time by the little rodent,
which reminds one of a converse case recorded in
Argentina, when an opossum, a great foe of birds,
had established itself in one of the rooms of a com-
posite nest of the Quaker Parrakeet above alluded
to, the stout walls and overhanging eaves preventing

1 86 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

him from clearing the colony, which included
besides the rightful owners a tree-building Teal
(of some species) as an additional but harmless
parasite.

The Sparrow, as we all know, too often evicts
the House-Martin and takes possession, but it is
not so familiar a fact that the Swift does the same
thing by him ; this seems not to have been recorded
since the days of Gilbert White, but it used to
happen regularly under the eaves of Mr. B. Clarke's
photographic studio at Maidstone when I was a
boy at school there with his sons.

In Argentina the Oven-bird's cosy nest is coveted
by a Saffron- Finch (Sy calls pelzelni) and a Tree-
Martin (Progne tapera), this powerful Swallow even
fighting the owners for its possession, and sometimes
successfully ; and, strangest of all, the Wood-
Sandpiper (Totanus glareola) and some allied species
of Sandpipers breed in old nests of other birds
and of squirrels.

The remarkable phenomenon of parasitism in the
young of birds has been known in the case of the
common European Cuckoo from classical times, and
is quite proverbial, though even in the habits and
procedure of this well-known bird there are many
points yet to be made out ; but it occurs not only
in many other Cuckoos — though only in those of
the Old World, and not universally there — but has
originated independently in the Cow-birds, Pas-
serines belonging to the family of Troupials (Icte-
which is intermediate between the Finches

PARASITIC FAMILIES 187

and the Starlings in form and habits, and in the
curious little birds known as Honey-guides (Indi-
catoridte), closely allied in their anatomy to the
Barbets, and best known from Africa, though a few
occur in South-east Asia and its islands.

Among the Cuckoos, only those are parasitic
which are essentially perchers, having short legs
and powerful wings, and seldom coming to the
ground ; among these the habit seems to be uni-
versal in the Old World, from the tiny and beautiful
Violet Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx amethystinus) of Malay-
sia, to the huge Toucan-like Channel-bill (Scythrops
novce-hollan&ice) of Australasia, though the American
Cuckoos of this type do not display it. The short-
winged, strong-legged, Magpie-like Bush-Cuckoos,
such as the " Crow-Pheasant " of India and the
Guira of South America, are never parasitic, though
the latter and its black allies the Tick-birds (Croto-
phaga) indulge in the custom of communal building
and nestling- rearing.

The general habits of the European Cuckoo are
well known ; the egg, which is very small for the
size of the bird, is usually laid on the ground and
then taken in the bird's bill and placed in the
foster-nest, though when this is conveniently
situated, the Cuckoo may sit on it to lay her egg.
The male may accompany the female to guard her
or distract the hostility of the owners, but this is
apparently exceptional, the general impression
among naturalists being that Cuckoos live in a
state of promiscuity and do not regard conjugal

1 88 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

ties.' The natives of Yarkand go further, and say
there are no male Cuckoos at all, the hens being
the paramours of a Shrike (Lanius isabellinus), the
Barred Warbler (Sylvia nisoria), or even of frogs !
a belief which at any rate argues that two Cuckoos
ar^not often seen together.

(The egg, when incubated by the fosterer, develops
after a proportionately short incubation period
into a blind naked young bird which has a hollow
in the back, facilitating the work in which it almost
immediately engages of turning eggs or its foster-
nest-mates out of the nest by getting under them
and backing upwards to the edge of the nest till
they are rolled out. When, as rarely happens, two
Cuckoos' eggs have been deposited in the same
nest, the " survival of the fittest " is naturally not
determined till after a severe contest. But this
fury for eviction only lasts about a week, after
which time the young Cuckoo will tolerate a bed-
fellow.

(The foster-parents do not concern themselves
about this fratricidal behaviour in their nursery,
but assiduously feed their changeling and leave the
rightful heirs to die ; nor is there anything wonder-
ful in this behaviour, as it is the common custom
of birds to neglect a fallen nestling and to give
most food to that which is most strongand ravenous)
I once had an opportunity of watching a nestful of
Starlings which were being reared on a roof just
under my window at Oxford ; and as far as I
could see there was not the least attempt at fair

AN IRRESISTIBLE BEGGAR 189

feeding on the part of the parents. A very ravenous
young bird appeared always to be on top of the
rest, and to get nearly all contributions till he
subsided and another got the opportunity of taking
his place. The Calcutta pair of Dabchicks, how-
ever, fed their young fairly, and I have seen a
young bird pecked instead of fed when it clamoured
too soon for a second helping.

The fact that the young Cuckoo is assiduously
fed long after it can fly is probably due to the
insistent quality of its appeal ; birds which have
not reared one will feed it, I and on one occasion
when a young Cuckoo was confined in a Parrot-
cage in the inside compartment of the Western
Aviary at the Zoo, a Black Tanager (Tacbyphonus
melanoleucus), a South American species which
could have had no knowledge of such a bird, never-
theless squeezed through the bars to feed it.

The range of foster-parents in the case of the
common Cuckoo is wider than in any other, and
may partly account for the wide range of the species
itself, Cuckoos generally being quite as tropical as
Parrots or Humming-birds, though in view of the
extension into North America of the non-parasitic
Cuckoos, this is evidently not the only explanation.
The favourite fosterer is the Titlark or Meadow-
Pipit, and presumably it is due to its dependence
on this bird that the Cuckoo ranges out on to the
moorlands, a habitat for which it, like most of the
family, is ytterly unsuited, being an awkward mover
on the ground, though on trees it hops more actively

190 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

than its short legs would lead one to expect.. The
Hedge-Sparrow is, however, a well-known victim
of the Cuckoo, and is the most often spoken of,
since as it is such a familiar bird itself, the alien
nestling is most often seen in its easily-found nest
in most places^

Other well-known Cuckoo-rearers are the Robin,
Pied Wagtail, and Reed- Warbler, and many other
small birds are patronized, but chiefly the insec-
tivorous kinds, though now and then a Finch's nest
may be selected. Larger birds are very seldom
Cuckoo-fosterers, probably because they can drive
off the intruder — otherwise we should expect to find
the Blackbird, Thrush, and Starling the commonest
fosterers, their nests being easy to find and their
habits in every way suitable. The Red-backed
Shrike, however, in spite of its ferocity, is a not
uncommon foster-parent on the Continent, though
rarely so in this country.

In this case, the egg of the Cuckoo seems gener-
ally to bear a close resemblance to that of the
Shrike, but such resemblance to the egg of the
fosterer is not by any means universal. The
Cuckoo's egg is indeed very variable, though not
nearly so much so as that of the Guillemot ; and its
small size relatively to that of its producer is
paralleled by the similar smallness of the egg of
the Raven above alluded to. The mottled-drab
coloration which is the most usual is certainly not
very unlike that of Wagtails' and Pipits' eggs,
though the resemblance is far closer to that of the

MIMICRY IN EGG-COLOUR 191

Skylark than to any other bird's, but no Robin or
Hedge-Sparrow, even if colour-blind, could fail to
notice the difference of the alien egg.
(It is said that eggs resembling those of the foster-
parents, such as the blue form found in the Red,-
start's nest, tend to be confined to fosterers which
are rarely patronized, leading to the inference that
such are not easily duped, so that a perfect imitation
has been evolved ; but such an explanation involves
the assumptions that certain strains of Cuckoos
always lay in particular birds' nests, and always
produce eggs of the same colour, of which there is
no evidence at present. Certainly, as in the case
of Tree-Sparrows and Eagles, the same individual
birds do not always lay similar eggs ; a very
remarkable instance of this has occurred in the
case of the Nightingale, in whose nest have been
found an egg of the normal olive-brown, a blue
one, and two of intermediate shades.

In some Oriental Cuckoos there is a very perfect
assimilation between the egg of the parasite and
the fosterer ; the " Brain-fever-bird " (Hierococcyx
varius) and the Pied Crested Cuckoo (Coccystes
jacobinus) lay in the nests of Babbling-Thrushes
(Crateropus and Argya) and their eggs are plain
blue like those of the Babblers ; and the Koel
(Eudynamis honor ata), the commonest and best-
known Cuckoo in India, is parasitic on House and
Jungle Crows (Corvus splendens and C. culminatus),
and lays an egg very like a small Crow's egg. It is
doubtful, however, whether the imitation is here

192 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

of any service, for just as Graham records in the
" Birds of lona and Mull " that he got Hooded
Crows to hatch Bantam eggs smeared with indigo,
so Mr. D. Dewar has got the House-Crow to hatch
an ordinary Hen's egg.

In the Koel, by the way, the parasitism is not
so perfect as in the common Cuckoo ; the young
bird does not always eject the young Crows, and
the old birds feed it after it has been reared in the
Crows' nest. I have myself, however, seen the
Crows feeding a young Koel, which is curious, as
they hate and persecute the old bird. The Koel
avails itself of this to get its egg deposited, the
male bird drawing off the Crows in pursuit of him,
while the female deposits her egg, presumably
laying it in the nest, this being convenient, while
the bird, like so many tropical fruit-eaters, seems
never to come to the ground, and so is not likely
to descend in order to lay there.

Another case of incomplete parasitism among
Cuckoos is recorded of an African species, the
splendidly glittering little Emerald Cuckoo (Chryso-
coccyx smaragdineus), which Keulemans, the late
well-known bird artist, told Buller, as related by
the latter in his " Birds of New Zealand," is in
the habit of hatching its solitary egg, and then
leaving the young bird to the mercy of the bird
public ; passing birds, he said, attracted by the
cry of the Cuckoo nestling, dropped contributions
into its mouth, an episode he had himself often
witnessed on Prince's Island. \

TOLERATION IN A CUCKOO 193

An allied but less brilliant species, one of the
Bronze Cuckoos (C. cupreus), also African, is parasitic
on such different small birds as Sun-birds and
Finches ; a similar species, the Shining Cuckoo
(C. lucidus) of New Zealand, generally lays its egg
in the nest of the small Grey Warbler (Gerygone
flaviventris), which makes a pensile nest with side
entrance. This same little bird is parasitized by
the other New Zealand Cuckoo (Urodynamis
taitensis), which is larger than our Cuckoo, while
the Shining Cuckoo is much smaller.

This large New Zealand Cuckoo, however, has
also been found in the nest of the Wood-Robin
(Miro albifrons), and it was particularly noted that
although it throve well, and ultimately sat on top
of the young Robins, these also lived, and when
the young Cuckoo and a young Robin were removed
and caged, the old Robins fed both of them. When
a nest of the Grey Warbler containing a young
Shining Cuckoo was watched in the same country,
however, it was noticed that the young Warblers,
although not immediately at all events ejected by
their bedfellow, nevertheless died off one by one,
and some were found outside.

The large New Zealand Cuckoo is extending its
parasitism to the introduced British birds, and also
preys on their young, as it did on those of the
native birds, and their eggs, when first studied ;
these predatory habits make it less surprising that
our Cuckoo should be credited with eating some
of the eggs of the foster-parents in whose nests
13

194 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

it deposits its own. Many must be familiar with
the old rhyme about the Cuckoo, about which it
is said that

She sucks little birds' eggs
To make her voice clear.

A taste for the eggs of other birds is not at all
uncommon among the insectivorous species — at
any rate it frequently develops in captivity, and
as to the antiquity of the tradition, it must be
remembered that formerly Cuckoos were evidently
far more familiar to the British public than they
are now, judging by the allusions to them in our
literature. Shakespeare in the " Midsummer
Night's Dream " makes Bully Bottom the Weaver
allude to the " plain-song Cuckoo grey."

I fancy most people nowadays, whether weavers
or writers, would not be able to say off-hand of
what colour a Cuckoo is. The colour of the young
Cuckoo, however, with its black barring on a
ground of brown above and whitish below, is
evidently pretty familiar, this changeling being so
often found in the nest of its fosterer, and exposing
itself when fledged quite freely until it leaves us
in the autumn, in a manner very unlike the stealthy
habits of its parents in the spring ; so that it is
not astonishing that " Cuckoo " is the poultry-
fancier's term for a barred grey fowl such as the
Plymouth-rock, though any brown shade in this
breed would now be a disqualification.

It may be mentioned that there are wild birds

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CUCKOOS AND THEIR MODELS 195

coloured just like a barred grey fowl of ordinary
type and not of very high standard of marking,
and that these are the grey species of the flightless
Kiwis or Apteryxes. The coincidence of such a
peculiar marking occurring in two such very
different birds as the flightless nocturnal New
Zealand Kiwi and varieties of our domestic fowls,
should prepare us for coincidences in coloration,
and help to make us sceptical about the survival
value of the curious resemblances to Hawks seen
in many of the Cuckoos. Some of these are cer-
tainly most extraordinary ; the Brain-fever-bird
or Hawk-Cuckoo of India above mentioned is extra-
ordinarily like the common Hawk of the Indian
plains known as the Shikra (Astur badius) and the
resemblance is not confined to the adult birds, but
extends to the young in first plumage, which are
differently clad from them in both mimic and
model. Another member of the genus Hiero-
coccyx to which this bird belongs, H. sfarverioides,
resembles another Sparrow-Hawk, the Besra (Acci-
fiter virgatus).

(The Hawk-like appearance of our own Cuckoo
has often been commented on, but it is very sketchy
compared with that of the above species, and the
young and adult stages do not resemble the same
kinds of Hawks, and the shape is less Sparrow-Hawk-
like. Moreover, the young of the non-parasitic
Crow-Pheasant is just as much like a Hawk, when of
the barred type (some resemble the black, chestnut-
winged adult, but are usually duller), as our young

196 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

Cuckoo, and I have in Calcutta seen tame Gtimea-
Fowls and wild Crows distinctly impressed and
apparently alarmed by one of these young birds
which came into my possession, just as in the Zoo
the keepers find that their small birds from many
countries kept in the West Aviary are frightened
if a common Cuckoo is introduced to them.

A fairly good general resemblance is therefore
sufficient to impress birds, but the point of it
seems to be wanting. If the Hawk-like appear-
ance of certain Cuckoos scares the fated fosterers
from their nest, what end is served by the Hawk-
like appearance of the fostered young ? Besides,
many parasitic Cuckoos are not like Hawks, or
resemble Hawks found in a different country.
Thus, the large New Zealand Cuckoo, as noted by
Buller, is extremely like an American Hawk (Acci-
fiter cooperi), but does not so closely resemble
any native Hawk ; and the same Babblers which
foster the Brain-fever-bird also rear, as has been
said, the pied Crested Cuckoo which, with its
crested head and plumage black above and white
below, is like no Indian Hawk. Neither is any
Hawk anywhere like the splendid Emerald, Bronze,
and Violet Cuckoos, for adult Hawks and other birds
of prey, like the downy young birds we have been
considering, follow mammalian rules of colour, and
eschew brilliant tints except on bare parts.

Some even of the non-parasitic Cuckoos may
have a rather Hawk-like coloration, like the large
fruit- eating Cuckoo, Carpococcyx fadiatus, of the

WIDE-SPREAD CUCKOO-PATTERN 197

Malayan islands, which is indeed rather Pheasant-
like in shape, but Hawk-like in pattern. The
curious resemblance between most parasitic Cuckoos
and the Hawks in having long thigh-plumes must
be pure coincidence, as the short legs of the Cuckoos
are not suited for exhibiting this point, and besides,
the Hawks they most resemble are long on the
leg ; Hawks also sit erect, not horizontally like
Cuckoos.

It must not be forgotten that the Sparrow-Hawk
pattern, or Cuckoo pattern, whichever one chooses
to call it, of a plain or nearly plain upper surface
and a barred lower side, is one of the most strikingly
recurrent patterns in the bird class, like the Magpie
pattern to which Mr. D. Dewar and myself have
drawn attention in our critical work on "The Making
of Species." It is found, for instance, among the
Passerines, in many of the thence-named Cuckoo-
Shrikes (Campepbaga) ; in the male Barred Warbler
of Europe (Sylvia nisoria) ; in both sexes of a little
Australian Finch, the Cherry-crowned (Aictemosyne
modesta) ; in an Australian Duck, the Pink-eyed
(Malacorhynchus membranaceus) ; in the female
of the well-known Upland Goose (Chloephaga
magellanica) — which also happens to have the
gamboge-yellow feet so common in birds of prey,
and so rare elsewhere, instead of the orange not
uncommon in waterfowl — and in both sexes of an
allied compatriot, the Ruddy-headed Goose (C. rubi-
diceps) ; in an Indian Owl (Glaucidium cuculoides),
and in some little Doves jDf the genus Geopelia.

198 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

The most fervent advocate of mimicry will
hardly maintain that small Doves and Passerines
and big waterfowl mimic Hawks ; so why not put
the whole thing down to coincidence ? The resem-
blance of our Cuckoo to a Hawk does not save it
from the real bird, for Mr. J. H. Owen in " British
Birds " for 1914 expressly mentions Cuckoos among
the victims of the Sparrow-Hawk.

The Honey-guides, which are a family of very
few species, appear to be all parasitic, but practically
nothing is known about the ways of the Asiatic
species, not even the extraordinary and well-known
instinct of guiding men and the Ratel or Honey-
badger (Mellivora) to bee- nests being recorded of
them. The egg of the African Honey-guides,
which is white, has been found in the nest of the
White-throated Swallow (Hirundo albigularis) by
Mr. Ivy in the case of Sparrmann's Honey-guide
(Indicator sparrmanni) as recorded in Stark and
Sclater's " Birds of South Africa " ; the same
gentleman recorded the egg of the Yellow- throated
species (/. major) in the nest of a Drongo-shrike ;
while Mrs. Barber found the same species parasitizing
the Black-collared Barbet (Lybius torquatus). She
also found the Lesser Honey-guide (/. minor)
parasitizing the Tinker, another Barbet of very
small size (Barbatula pusilla).

Mr. Ivy found a pair of the above-mentioned
Black-collared Barbet actually trying to fight off
this Honey-guide from their nesting-hole, the
intruder persistently returning ; evidently her case

NESTLING HONEY-GUIDES 199

was a desperate one, for when she was shot the egg
was found to be actually half-laid. No doubt it is
an emergency like this in the case of the common
Cuckoo which accounts for the egg being found in
such unlikely and unsuitable nests as those of the
Wood-Pigeon and, of all others, the Dabchick !
The strong tendency of the Honey-guides to
sponge on their own relatives, the Barbets, is
noticeable ; the present species has been said to
lay in the nests not only of those mentioned, but
also in those of the Pied Barbet (Tricbol&ma leuco-
melari) and of a Woodpecker (Mesopicus griseo-
cefhalus).

It is of interest here to note that the plumage of
the Honey-guides is plain and ordinary in character
in all the species, resembling that of the less con-
spicuous Finches, and not in the least like the
striking and often variegated tints of the fosterers
they select. They appear, however, always to use
the nests of birds which lay white eggs, though their
own are distinguishable from these readily enough.

The young Honey-guide has the ends of both
jaws sharply hooked, which is not the case with
the adult ; it is supposed that this structure is
comparable to the hollowed back of the young
Cuckoo, an adaptation to facilitate the ejection of
the foster-fellow-nestlings, in this case to ensure a
strong grip with the beak. The young Honey-
guide certainly seems when found to have the nest
to itself, like some young Cuckoos and Cow-birds,
but it must be remembered with regard to the

200 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

structure of the beak that this is in other cases
sometimes more hooked in the young than in the
adult, as in young Gannets and Herons ; and
incidentally it would be well to examine all young
Cuckoos available, to see if the non-parasitic species
were hollow-backed at first as well as the others.

The old Honey-guides appear to associate with
the young when reared, and perhaps instruct them
unconsciously or otherwise ; Mr. Ivy found two
old and three young birds of the Scaly-throated
species (/. variegatus) together, of which only one
old bird would guide him.

The parasitism of the Cow-birds is in a way
more instructive than that of the Cuckoos and
Honey-guides, because here the gradations of the
instinct can be very plainly traced. These birds,
which are among the most Finch-like of the Trou-
pials, having short thick bills, and being able to
live on dry seed which they crack in typical Finch
fashion, are all closely related and easily recognizable.

One of them, the original Cow-bird (Molobrus
-pecans) of North America, is as truly and com-
pletely parasitical as our Cuckoo, laying one egg in
the nests of various small insectivorous birds, which
rear that young bird alone, so that the others
evidently perish, even if not ejected ; a fate which
is likely to befall weak young birds in any case, as
exemplified by my Canary experience. This is a
glossy-black species with a sooty-brown head in the
male, brown in the female, and used to consort
with bisons when they were common, as it now

INCOMPETENT COW-BIRDS 201

does with cattle, whence its scientific and popular
names. Like the rest of the genus, it is chiefly
a ground-bird and a walker, so that in general
habits it presents no resemblance whatever to the
parasitic Cuckoos.

In South America are found several species, and
it is to the able historian of the birds of Argentina
Mr. W. H. Hudson, that we owe the elucidation of
their curious half- developed instincts. The best-
known species, the glossy Cow-bird (Molobrus bonar-
iensis), is very common and often imported here
as a cage-bird ; the male is a resplendent purple
and the hen sooty. It is truly parasitic in that its
young are always reared by other birds, but its
parasitism is slovenly and incomplete. Several
females will lay in the same foster-nest, and fairly
swamp it with their undesired contributions,
whereas it is rare in the case of the Cuckoo to
find, two parasite eggs in one nest. To this suicidal
instinct they add another equally silly, of destroying
any sort of eggs they may come across, those of
their own species included ; and moreover they
recklessly drop eggs about on the ground, a habit
shared by another South American bird, the Rhea.
And just as the hen Rheas are, so to speak, parasitic
on their own males, and pool their eggs in his nest,
so these hen Cow- birds occasionally make a futile
nest of their own, in some silly place such as on
the leaves of a large thistle, and leave even this
poor attempt unfinished.

Then there is a species, brown with chestnut

202 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

wings in both sexes (M. badius), which is also
common, and is not parasitic, except to the mild
extent of stealing another bird's nest when it
can ; this species is itself parasitized by another
(M. rufo-axillaris) in which both sexes are black.

I particularize the colours of these species because
it is interesting to note that the one with the
simplest and probably most primitive coloration
retains its primitive habits, and the most advanced
in coloration is actually parasitic on this; a fact
which, however curious it may appear, is not so
paradoxical after all, for allied species recognize
each other's affinity, and as long as a member of a
parasitical group retained the ordinary nesting-
habits of birds, it is, after all, at least as reasonable
that a parasite should quarter itself on this as on
an alien. There is, however, no case known of a
parasitic Cuckoo quartering its offspring on an
independent one, although species of both types
are habitually found in the same countries in the
Old World.

The one Cow-bird which penetrates into the
northern half of the American continent is, like
our exceptionally widely- ranging Cuckoo, a bird of
extended parasitism, favouring various species of
small Finches and insectivorous birds ; with the
Cat-bird (Galeoscoptes carolinensis), a larger species
than most of its fosterers, it is seldom successful,
and the Golden Warbler (Dendrceca estiva) some-
times disposes of the Cow-bird's egg, not by turning
it out of the nest, but by building a fresh floor over

THE DRONGO AND ITS MIMIC 203

it, and in the case of a repeated invasion by the
parasite, may have recourse to this expedient more
than once.

Another case of parasitism, and in this case also
on allies, is furnished by the Troupials, the large
black Cassidix oryzivora, a bird about the size of
a Jackdaw, being a parasite on some of the other
Troupials known as Hang-nests.

Cow-birds do not mimic their dupes in appear-
ance any more than Honey-guides ; and indeed
this resemblance to an alien fosterer only appears
in one or two Cuckoos, and is doubtful there. One
Eastern Cuckoo, indeed (Surniculus dicruroides), has
been called the Drongo-Cuckoo, and attained a
great celebrity in books and museums, owing to
its resemblance to the common, conspicuous, and
highly pugnacious black Drongo-Shrikes (Dicrurus),
which it is believed to parasitize, though the chief
evidence of this is that a pair of Drongos has been
seen to kill one of these Cuckoos, which does not
look as if the resemblance did much good to its
possessor.

The size and general shape of Drongo and
Drongo-Cuckoo are certainly very similar, but after
all there are plenty of birds of which this could
be said ; the black colour goes for nothing, as
there are several other black Cuckoos, parasitic and
otherwise, such as Cuculus clamosus allied to our
Cuckoo, Coccystes serratus among the crested para-
sitic Cuckoos, and the whole genus Crotopbaga or
Anis among the non-parasites. Moreover, the tail

204 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

of the Drongo-mimic is only square or slightly
forked, whereas the tail of the Drongo itself has an
extra strong and deep fork with an outward turn
like that of our Blackcock, so that these spirited
Shrikes would have to be uncommonly bad observers
not to detect the impostor at a glance.

However that may be, the other case does not
seem very much better ; one of the Koels of the
genus Eudynamis allied to the Indian Koel above
mentioned lays in Borneo in the nest of a Talking
Mynah (Eulabes), and the young of both sexes are
said to be black, as males of this genus of Cuckoos
always are, the hens being speckled like hen
Pheasants. This is supposed to deceive the parent
Mynahs, which are black birds, while the Cuckoos
are growing up, the hen getting her colour
later on.

Something similar has been said about the
Indian Koel, which, as we have seen, parasitizes
Crows, birds which are certainly more clever than
any Mynah ; but as a matter of fact, in Bengal at
any rate, young Koels do not resemble the male in
all cases. Young cocks are black, indeed, but have
some buffy markings, and young hens are almost as
variegated as the old birds, equally so in fact save
for a solid black cap. It would surely be far more
to the point for the hen to be like a Crow, so as
to approach the nest in greater safety, if evolution
here were proceeding on orthodox lines. And as to
the resemblance of the young to that of fosterers,
the^Hawk-like young of other Cuckoos manage to

A FUTILE RESEMBLANCE 205

get brought up all right, in spite of the absence of
resemblance to the fosterers' -true young, and of
the presence of a resemblance to the most hated
and feared of birds.

Resemblances to some other bird than a near
ally seem to be a marked peculiarity of the Cuckoo
family ; not only do some of the parasitic Cuckoos
look like Hawks, and at least one, as we have seen,
rather like a Drongo, but the largest of this type,
the Channel-bill, is so like a Hornbill that it was
early described as one — yet there are no Hornbills
in Australia, where this bird occurs, and the nearest
Hornbill, found in New Guinea, is not that which
the Channel-bill resembles, the likeness being to
some of the small grey Indian species.

A parasitic Cuckoo may even resemble a non-
parasitic one, as in the case of the crested Coccystes
coromandus, which is coloured just like a non-
parasitic " Crow-Pheasant " (Centropus monacbus),
though the former is Indian and the latter African,
so that an excellent case of what is called in insects
" Mullerian mimicry " falls to the ground. It
would be just as well for parasitic Cuckoos if they
did get mistaken for stronger birds, as they are
often bullied, even by species which they do not
infest, but from what has been said, there does
not seem to be any really definite development of
this mimicry in appearance.

CHAPTER VII

Migration — An anciently observed phenomenon still imperfectly
understood — Reasons for it — Methods as far as is known —
Difference between migratory species and the homing Pigeon
— Widespread tendency to migration, contrasted with con-
tradictory tendency to form localized non-migratory races,
ending in some cases in Sightlessness, as in some birds of
remote islands

MIGRATION has always been a conspicuous pheno-
menon in the lives of certain birds, and often, as in
the case of Wildfowl and Quails, intimately bound
up with the question of human food-supplies, so>
that it is a very familiar fact ; but in spite of this;
familiarity, it is still far from being properly under-
stood. The old idea of the hibernation of some
birds is indeed definitely done away with, and
nowadays no one seems to believe that small birds*
ever ride on big ones ; yet Bee-eaters in Africa1,
have been found riding on Storks or Bustards when,
these were searching for prey on the ground, and
taking their share of the insects driven up ; so-
where is the difficulty of a weary Wren or Warbler
taking refuge on a Swan or Gannet, which certainly
could not dislodge it in mid-air ? I mention this
because there is no physical impossibility involved,

206

A MIGRANT IN MINIATURE 207

as in the case of Swallows, which were supposed
to winter under water, and the case is worth con-
sidering.

As to the reasons for migration, we have here
some chance, when we know more completely the
life- history of the birds, of finding them out ; and
at the outset, migration is in its essence simply the
periodical removal of an animal from conditions
which have ceased to be attractive to a locality
where it is, or expects to be, more comfortable. It
is not confined to birds, for some fish are well-
known migrants — one has only to cite the salmon — •
and mammals also undertake migrations, as the
American bison used to do, and as sea-lions do still.

A very interesting case is that of a small and
very local British land-snail (Helicodonta obvoluta),
now only found here on a limited area on the
South Downs, which executes a miniature migra-
tion from its hibernating haunt on the ground to
the branches of the beech-trees in spring, spending
the summer aloft, and in autumn coming down the
trunk to bury itself again. There is no essential
difference between the short journey of this humble
mollusc and the enormous transit of the world's
record migrant, the Arctic Tern, which breeds up
to the northern limit of land, and in our winter
reaches, on its southern migrations, even to the
cheerless shores of the Antarctic continent, there
to enjoy whatever sort of summer that unpromising
region can offer it.

Migrations in elevation, made no doubt very

208 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

often with little or no use of the wings in the case
of ground birds, are quite the normal thing in hill-
living birds, as in so many species inhabiting the
Himalayas ; the splendid Monaul or Impeyan
Pheasant (Lophophorus refulgens), for instance, ranges
up to the very edge of the forest belt in summer,
and comes down in winter into the lower deciduous
woods, where there is more chance of food. Wild
Turkeys in America used to wander long distances
in search of mast, acorns, etc., though their powers
of flight are so limited that in crossing a river a
mile broad, some of the weaker birds were certain
to fall in and have to finish the transit as best they
could by swimming, and it took days of gobbling
exhortation from the old cocks to get the emigrants'
spirit up to the pitch of starting at all.

Want of food is obviously the chief reason why
birds of high elevations or high latitudes have to
leave their haunts ; cold is by itself very little
operative, for it is not surprising that birds prove
comparatively indifferent to it, considering their
naturally high temperature and particularly warm
clothing. Not only do numerous tropical Finches
and Parrakeets winter safely in outdoor aviaries,
but of our poultry the majority come from hot
climates, the Fowl and Peacock, for instance, being
typical inhabitants of the plains and foothills of
India. With the end of autumn, however, comes
not only scarcity of food, but absence of cover,
owing to the deciduous character of so much
temperate vegetation, so that both for fear of

BRAVING OUT THE WINTER 209

getting nothing to eat and of becoming food for
others, the birds of temperate climates have to
seek a warmer country for the winter.

Species whose habits render them independent of
leaves and herbage and fresh water tend to be
resident ; thus, the Eider-Duck and Razor-bill
will winter on the edge of the Arctic ice, and
Woodpeckers and Tits, whose food is sought on
boughs and trunks rather than on leaves, can
pass the winter in leafless forests that Warblers
and Cuckoos must leave, while the Grouse feed
on conifer- needles and buds or burrow in the
snow for their food. Berry- eating birds like
Thrushes can live till the supply is gone, and a
confirmed berry-eater, the Waxwing, roves about
the north all winter, its long wings, almost Swallow-
like in form, giving it ranging powers that enable it
to dispense with a distant southern journey in many
years, though it may even reach Northern India.
Some birds of prey, too, remain even in the high
north as long as there is anything to be picked up,
such as the Snowy Owl, though even this has
strayed south to the Punjab.

The universality of the migration depends of
course on local conditions ; thus in the compara-
tively mild climate of our islands many species are
to be seen throughout the year which are migratory
in corresponding latitudes on the Continent, the
Robin and Song-Thrush for instance. Swallows
often remain after their time of leaving, and, as
Gilbert White observed, they stay particularly late

2to BIRD BEHAVIOUR

about Oxford, and I have been the unwilling witness
of the gradual failure and death, evidently from
hunger, of some of these poor would-be colonists
in permanency.

Birds of passage in the Southern Hemisphere
naturally migrate north in winter, from the same
motives as induce the northern birds to go south,
but there is a curious exception in the case of the
Emperor Penguin, which chooses mid-winter in its
haunts on the Antarctic ice-floes as the time for
laying and rearing its chick. Some other birds,
too, seem to come into breeding condition at most
unlikely-seeming times, for the fragile little Sun-
birds in some cases breed in high mountainous
parts of South Africa in winter when the snow
lies quite deep under their hanging nests.

Besides the direct north and south migrations
also, there are cases where the migration is rather
from east to west, as in the cases^of the White-eyed
and Red-crested Pochards (Nyroca africana and
Netta rufina), whose chief winter haunt is in India,
though their breeding-range extends not only into
Central Asia, but far west into Europe. The
Rosy Pastor presents the unusual case of a bird
which has a fixed wintering station in the east,
and a pronounced westerly migration, but no
definite breeding- haunt ; for these birds in winter
are essentially Indian, but breed in Western Asia
and Eastern Europe, but in different places in
different years, the flocks, which keep together even
in the breeding-season and nest in company,

LIFE ON THE EASTERN ISLES 211

settling down to breed irregularly in different
spots, being guided apparently by the abundance of
the locusts, which form a favourite food.

In the East Indies there are curious cases of
inter-insular migration in at least two Pigeons, the
ground- feeding Nicobar or Hackled Pigeon (Calcenas
nicobarica) and the arboreal Pied Fruit-Pigeon
(Myristicivora luctuosa), which wander far and wide
in the many islands of the Indian Ocean, but
do not come to the mainland. The case of the
Nicobar Pigeon is particularly remarkable, as only
scattered pairs are found breeding elsewhere than
on Batty Malve, a small and fortunately very
inaccessible islet in the Nicobar group, which
appears to be a perfect Pigeon-house during the
season when the birds rear their single chick.

This regular return to isolated spots in huge
numbers is almost unique in a land-bird, but, as is
well known, quite a common thing among sea-fowl,
especially Petrels and Penguins ; it was only com-
paratively recently found out where one of the com-
monest and most widespread among southern ocean
Petrels, the well-known spotted " Cape Pigeon "
(Daption capensis), nested, the locality being Ker-
guelen. Wilson's Petrel (Oceanites oceanicus) also
nests in Kerguelen, and spends the southern winter
in the north, affording a rare instance of a southern-
breeding bird crossing the equator, though it is
quite the usual thing for migrants from north to
south to go far south of this line.

It has, indeed, been found that of migratory

212 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

groups, the species which go farthest north to breed
often winter farthest south, as exemplified among
the Swifts and the Turtle-Doves ; among Ducks,
too, the arctic-breeding Pin-tail and Wigeon go
farther south than the temperate-zone-haunting
Mallard. None of the Geese, however, which
mostly breed in the high north, go very far south.
Many naturalists seem puzzled as to why birds
which have escaped starvation by going towards
equatorial lands should retrace their course again
to the countries they have left ; but this is because
they have generally little practical acquaintance
with any but the birds of the Northern Hemisphere,
where only, in Europe and the United States, do
ornithologists much abound. To any one who
knows the tropics, the problem does not seem so
wonderful. In the less well-watered parts of these
countries, the heat of the hot season produces
effects not so very different from the frosts of the
temperate winter. Herbage and leaves are parched
up, with the result that both insect and vegetable
food become scarce, and the water supply is much
restricted. Under these conditions reptiles, frogs,
and even fish " aestivate," i.e. go in for a summer
sleep, in the case of the aquatic creatures burying
themselves in the mud, and native birds of aquatic
habits have to leave these districts for better-
watered ones.

Obviously, then, the migrants are no better off,
and have every reason to get out of a country in
which the residents have all they can do to survive.

HEAT AND ITS INFLUENCE 213

The heat itself may have something to do with
making them leave, although on the whole birds
from temperate countries or of mountaineering
habits seem to bear heat as well as tropical resi-
dents, judging from what I was able to observe at
the Calcutta Zoo.

This is a most remarkable fact, considering that
the very peculiarities of birds I alluded to above as
fitting them to withstand cold are just those
which ought to make them susceptible to heat ;
and it is a curious fact that the warmly-clad Duck
tribe bear heat, even when migrants from the
north, particularly well, while the thinly-clothed
Pheasant family are more susceptible than any other
birds ; the Monaul bears heat worse than any bird
I know, panting in a temperature which provokes
no such manifestation of oppression from any other
bird. Among the Pigeons, too, I noted the Hima-
layan Snow-Pigeon (Columba leuconota) showed no
distress at the heat, although a high alpine bird,
while some of the warm-climate-dwelling fruit-
Pigeons were obviously affected, as were many
Parrots. Crows also feel heat much, even tropical
species like the Indian House-Crow, and the House-
Sparrow, although it lives well through both heat
and cold, pants constantly in the Indian summer,
while the imported Goldfinch seems quite indifferent
to heat.

It is noteworthy, too, that while the Mallard in
its wild state does not visit the tropics except on
its southern migrations, its descendant, the domestic

214 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

Duck, lives and breeds well there, the most spe-
cialized of all its breeds, the Penguin Duck —
apparently the ancestor of the so-calleld " Indian "
Runner, so deservedly popular nowadays — being
characteristic of the Malay Islands, so that, though
even in this country young Ducklings are found to
be very intolerant of heat, it must have been long
and perfectly acclimatized in the East ; and many
of the migratory Ducks I watched in confinement
in Calcutta showed distinct signs of wishing to
breed.

On the whole, then, there is little evidence
that the direct effect of heat itself has influenced
the spring-time ebb of bird-life away from the
tropics ; but its indirect effects, as hinted above,
are another matter, and apropos of this it may be
noted that in the Bombay famine of a few years
ago the game-birds, which could not migrate,
suffered and died just as if they were mammals,
while better flyers escaped.

Then there has to be taken into consideration
the attitude of the bird-population of the tropics
themselves. It is true that this is so numerous
and varied that the huge tidal wave of migrants
from the north into India makes no more obvious
difference to the human observer of the bird
population than does the influx of the football
crowd into London on the occasion of the great
Cup-tie contest to the apparent fulness of the
metropolis, and no doubt things are much the
same elsewhere.

PRESSURE FROM RESIDENTS 215

But birds, like savage tribes and civilized nations,
have boundaries to consider, and if they invade the
territories of others, must sooner or later have to
fight for a place or return whence they came. And
in such a contest, which must be inevitable in the
tropics when food and favourable locations get at
all scarce, the advantage is all on the side of the
residents, which are generally speaking birds of
a superior type mentally and morally, even when
less specialized physically, and perhaps, indeed, on
that very account. They generally excel the birds
of temperate regions in courage, social instincts,
and intelligence, as is shown by their much greater
power of combination, and by the far superior
nests they often build. Finches of the typical
temperate-zone groups have a poor time in an
aviary if crowded along with Weavers, and the
Tree-Ducks know how to make the migratory
temperate-zone Ducks respect them, while the
solitary Thrushes would have a poor chance against
the Babblers, with their powers of combination
which enable them often to resist even Hawks.

There is a popular belief that birds in temperate
climates sing better than in the tropics, but all the
foundation for this idea is the fact that the Nightin-
gales are birds of the temperate zone, and that
some very common Thrushes are good singers ;
with the exception of the Nightingales no singers
of the north of the Old World can surpass, or even
equal, the Shama (Cittocincla macrura) and Orange-
headed Ground-Thrush (Geocichla citrina) of India,

2i6 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

and in the New World the Mocking-birds (Mimus)
are essentially southern, though the most celebrated
(M. 'polyglottus) ranges into the northern states. The
only point in which the birds of temperate climates
really excel the tropical forms is in power of flight,
which they have had perforce to cultivate, and
even this superiority is not universal, for there are
some of the most magnificent flyers among the
Parrots and Pigeons, which are essentially tropical
to say nothing of Frigate-birds and Tropic -birds.

In addition to influences of this kind, which are
operative on young and old birds alike, there is the
instinctive attachment to the breeding-place, which
is so strong in birds that they have often been
recorded as returning to it for many years in suc-
cession. This of course must act to a certain
extent on the old birds, and even the young, if
at all uncomfortable where they find themselves
by the time they complete their first year, are
most likely to come back to the place which gave
them birth, and where they had their first insight
into the enjoyments of flight and independence.

The main point about migration, therefore, is
the fixing of the methods, not the motive ; and it
is here that we are confronted with problems
difficult to solve. The case of the Homing Pigeon
ought to give us some help, but such Pigeons are
well known to be guided almost entirely by sight,
and to need training by gradually increased stages ;
whereas birds of passage frequently, perhaps most
commonly, fly by night, and, in the autumn migra-

THE HOMING INSTINCT 217

tion, the young often leave the land of their birth
before the adults do. A converse case of juvenile
independence is that of the common Cuckoo, the
old birds leaving us in July, while the young remain
till the general southward movement of migrants
in September, long after all old Cuckoos have
left us.

That many birds have some method of correctly
directing their course without the aid of sight is
shown not only by the night-flights of many, but
by the return of Penguins to their breeding-grounds-,
unable as they necessarily are to take a wide survey,
owing to their flightlessness ; by the return of
Noddy and Sooty Terns to their breeding-places
in the Southern United States after they had been
taken away and released hundreds of miles north of
their range, and by at least two instances of flying
birds taking the correct direction on foot when
deprived of the power of flight, that of a Canada
Goose recorded by Audubon, and of an Upland
Goose cited by Mr. Hudson — though in the latter
case it must be admitted that the bird's full-winged
mate was with it. These cases are, however, par-
ticularly interesting in that in the former the bird's
spring destination was north, and in the latter
south. In England, also, a cock Reeves's Pheasant,
released thirty miles away from home, was found
next day perched on the aviary in which he had
been bred.

There is undoubtedly a great deal of more or
less random movement, especially in young birds ;

2i 8 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

such are particularly apt to appear in localities not
normally frequently by their species, as I found in
the case of the invasion of India in the late 'nineties
by Baer's White- eyed Pochard (Nyroca baeri), most
of the specimens I obtained being young birds.
Birds also often range for a time north of their
breeding-haunts in autumn, and may even fly out
into the Atlantic from our coasts, only to perish
or come back utterly exhausted.

There is thus a good deal to be said in justification
for the statement that young birds " wander almost
at random," and that most of them are probably
destroyed before the next spring ; and the dangers
of a long migration may be the chief reason why
birds are more numerous, but less fertile, in the
tropics, where there is not this wholesale risk to
be faced annually. Of course there is a. good deal
of local movement even in the tropics, but not
much is known about this as yet, and the journeys
are inevitably far less risky.

It has been pointed out that the reason why
day-birds so often migrate by night is that by so
doing they utilize hours which would in any case
have to be spent without food, and thus economize
time and strength ; but the ever-present danger
of Gulls, Carrion-Hawks, and Crows, some or other
of which are always to be found along every coast,
all on the alert to note signs of weariness in birds
they ordinarily would have no hope of capturing,
must surely have something to do with this, and
it is to be noted that in all groups the larger or

RELINQUISHING TRAVEL 219

more powerfully-flying species are more inclined to
day migration than the feebler folk; thus, Crows
and Swallows among the Passerines, and Geese and
Swans among the wildfowl, migrate by day, as do
Hawks, Storks, and other powerful and predatory
birds.

The tendency to migration is nearly universal
among birds of temperate zones ; even, as re-
marked above, in species not usually thought of
as migrants, because always visible at any time of
year in our country at least ; the most thoroughly
sedentary of flying birds being the Game-birds and
Woodpeckers, which have special facilities for
finding food, though even of these some migrate,
such as the Quail and Greater Spotted Woodpecker.

On the other hand, there is a strong tendency for
migrants to settle down and form non-migratory
local races ; thus, most of our resident British
birds are recognizably different from the conti-
nental individuals of the same species which visit
us, and are nowadays distinguished as local races or
sub-species ; and we may notice that the Blackbird
shows a much greater tendency to become per-
manently resident in the north than the Thrush,
a weaker and less versatile but more strongly-flying
bird. The Quail, one of the most anciently-known
migrants, often used to pass the winter here when
it was commoner, and conversely has been known
to breed in numbers in India, usually only a winter-
resort, while it has established resident races in
Spain and in the Canaries, although attempts to

220 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

introduce it artificially into the United States have
failed.

This tendency to settle down and have done
with the fatigues and dangers of migration has
resulted in the production of many localized and
often insular races of birds, which have often
become flightless, where flight was of little import-
ance in their daily life ; thus we had the Great
Auk in the north, formerly a most abundant bird,
and in the Galapagos there has been discovered of
late years a flightless Cormorant (Nannopterum
harrisi), and on the elevated Lake Titicaca in the
Peruvian Andes there lives a flightless Grebe
(Podicipes mi crofter us), such a lake being the bio-
logical equivalent of an oceanic island.

Such flightless species are to be found most com-
monly amongst the Rails, birds which migrate a
good deal, but are nevertheless poor flyers as a
whole, and always more ready to use their legs than
their wings ; they also have a most peculiar pro-
pensity for turning up in the most out-of-the-way
places, being probably unable to make head against
a wind, while their power of swimming enables
them to rest on the water and gain fresh strength
where others would drown.

The widest migrant and most successful bird of
all is the little unspecialized Turnstone, which is
to be found on all shores in the world at one
time or other of the year, and is strongly sus-
pected of having established^ breeding colonies far
and wide in the world, though its main haunts

THE SUCCESS OF THE TERNS 221

in the nesting-season are undoubtedly in the
north.

When we come to consider groups, however, the
palm for success in the struggle for existence, as
evidenced by wide distribution over the world, must
be awarded to the Terns, a very highly specialized
group in structure, exaggerating the points of their
more generalized family relations the Gulls. Gulls
go nearly everywhere, but are much rarer in or
near the Tropics than in colder regions, and rarely
breed there, and are absent altogether in the
Central Pacific. But you cannot go anywhere
without meeting Terns, not only in remote islands,
but in the interior of great continents, for there
are many freshwater species.

Those curious exaggerations of the Tern type,
the Scissor-bills (Rhynchops), with the " under-
shot " beak with which they plough the water for
small fish, are all warm-climate birds, but the few
species between them extend all round the world.

Although there are no islands too distant for
such birds as these — and of course the oceanic
Petrels — to have reached, there are some which
are too out-of-the-way for any land-bird. When
Mr. W. L. Sclater was sent to investigate the
birds of the Chagos Islands, a small group in the
Indian Ocean, he found no land-bird there except
the little Scarlet Weaver (Foudia madagascariensis),
a most obvious human introduction ; and on Easter
Island, although a small land-bird has been re-
ported, it has never been brought to book, and

222 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

the Tinamous found there have been introduced
from Chile.

In Hawaii, too, the Kingfishers and Pigeons and
Parrots, which are elsewhere most widely spread
in the Pacific, are wanting, though a Chinese Turtle-
Dove (Turtur chinensis) has been successfully intro-
duced, as also has an Australian Parrakeet, the
Mealy Rosella (Platycercus pallidiceps), the original
stock in the latter case being but a single pair.
This being so, it is a great pity that a pair of the
common Belted Kingfisher of North America
(Ceryle alcyon) were shot on arrival, as they might
also have found a footing, and this natural intro-
duction of a new form would have been most
interesting to watch. The irruption of even a
large number of new birds, however, does not neces-
sarily always mean success, as in the case of the
failure of the well-known repeated attempts of
hordes of Pallas's Sand-Grouse to colonize Western
Europe, where they hatched young even with us.

An interesting example of successful emigration,
and that by a bird which nowadays very rarely
migrates at all, is furnished by the career of the
Magpie, a bird whose unique and conspicuous
appearance and — where it is not persecuted — its
abundance and familiarity, have always made it
one of the best known of birds, as the many stories
and superstitions relating to it abundantly testify.

It is very doubtful if this bird was known to the
ancient Greeks, for no species mentioned in their
writings can be definitely identified with it, unless

THE MAGPIE'S ODYSSEY 223

it was the " Lycian Daw " of Aristotle, which is not
described, but merely mentioned by name among
other " Daws,3' in his work on the u History of
Animals." The bird the Greeks called Kiss a or
Kitta, which some scholars have taken for the
Magpie, was evidently the Jay, since Aristotle
mentions its characteristic habit of storing away
the acorns, and in enumerating the various species
of Thrushes compares the Missel-Thrush to it
in size, a comparison for which the Magpie would
be obviously unsuitable owing to its long tail.
The Pica of the Romans, from which word the
French and English " Pie " is evidently derived,
was also the Jay, for here again the acorn- eating
habit is mentioned by Pliny, who also speaks of his
Pica, as Chaucer, so many centuries later, mentions
the Jay, as a bird kept for talking. The Roman
naturalist also gives us a definite clue to the extension
of the Magpie's range in his time, for he says that
of late years a new sort of Pie (Pica) had appeared
in the neighbourhood of Rome, noticeable for its
varied (or pied) colouring and long tail.

Many centuries later we have a definite historical
record of another westerly irruption of Magpies,
when about the year 1676 a flock of about a dozen
is stated to have arrived in Wexford — the ancestors
of the numerous Magpies which now form so
noticeable a feature in the bird-life of Ireland.
That they did not inhabit that island previously is
known from the " Itinerary " of Fynes Morison,
who expressly notices their absence in 1617.

224 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

As the Magpie is found in Western America
and all along the width of Asia in the north, it would
seem as if it were originally an American bird
which has in the course of thousands of years been
moving continually westwards, although on the
other hand the American birds may be a colony
which crossed Bering Straits in the opposite direction
to found a colony in the New World, as the Alaska
Wheatears are doing, in which case we might look
to Central Asia as the cradle of the Magpie race ;
it stands so much alone in the Crow tribe that it
has no near relatives to give us a clue.

CHAPTER VIII

The senses of birds — Sight and its general high development —
Degree of perception of colour — Influence of colour, if any,
on courtship, and the segregation of species — Perception of
the colour in various kinds of food — Smell, usually poorly
developed — Exceptions noted — Acuteness of hearing — Sense
of touch — Taste-perceptions.

THE senses of birds are nearly all well developed,
though the mechanism of the sense-organs is some-
times much less elaborate than in the case of
mammals, an important instance of the want of
correlation of structure with function. In power
of sight they, as a rule, surpass all other animals,
this being the dominant sense in all birds except the
Apteryxes or Kiwis of New Zealand, which see very
badly, not only in the day, when they are naturally
at rest, but even at night, when they will walk
right up to a person when at large, and show no
alarm when a white handkerchief is waved at them
when in captivity.

There is a possibility that there are great differ-
ences in the powers of distant sight of ordinary
birds, but there is little or no evidence so far on
this head. Macgillivray has indeed suggested in his
book on British Birds that the Spariow-Hawk is
15 225

226 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

short-sighted, because he had observed it does not
seem to see birds in a hedge at a hundred yards'
distance, and does not attack except at a range of
a few yards. The obvious criticism on this, how-
ever, is that the Sparrow-Hawk, like other birds of
prey, does not waste time and strength in attempt-
ing attacks which have no reasonable prospect of
success ; its strategy is mainly one of surprises, for
though capable of very great speed for a short
dash, it is not suited for a long pursuit. It there-
fore pays no attention to birds which it does' not
consider favourably placed for attack.

Fhave seen behaviour in Kites in Calcutta which
exactly suggests this. The Kite has no speed at
all, but can execute a very successful surprise
stoop, snatching food even from a man in a most
disconcerting manner. I have seen one of these
birds, passing with the slow flapping flight which it
employs when travelling at a low elevation of about
the height of the house-tops, evidently meditating
an attack on a Dabchick and her young on the
Calcutta Museum tank. The thought in the Kite's
mind was obvious, as it hung on its wings for a
moment over the little group ; but " chip, chip,"
went the Dabchick — which ordinarily never bothered
about Kites — beginning to " go down by the bows "
in preparation for a dive, her downy young imitat-
ing her, evidently reading the enemy's intentions ;
and the enemy's comprehension of the hopelessness
of the situation was equally complete, for the
poising was but momentary, and the Kite flapped

THE VISION OF VULTURES 227

on again, knowing that before its stoop could
reach the water the quarry would be under it.

Only occasionally were such very faint attempts
made, the numerous Kites knowing full well the
uselessness of attack, and this no doubt explains
why they never carried off the sitting Dabchick or
her young when resting on the very exposed nest.
One I bought in the bazaar and threw up near the
pond, failing to get under way and falling to the
ground, was instantly snapped up by a Kite within
a few feet of me. A dead Sparrow was also instantly
picked up, though live ones were not chased ; yet
a released cage-bird, if at all weak on the wing,
was instantly pursued.

The sight of the high-soaring birds of prey is
supposed to be particularly fine, and certainly
Vultures seem to be able to perceive a dead animal
when themselves out of human sight, though of
course they are often guided to their prey by
observing the movements of others floating at a
lower elevation, or of lesser scavengers such as
Kites and Crows, flying near the earth.

In this connection it is interesting to note that
the eyes of most Vultures are small compared to
those of Eagles, and are not overhung by a bony
brow, perhaps because less exact observation is
necessary in their case ; but in the ordinary way,
size of eye seems to have no more to do with power
of vision in birds than in man, the usually small-
eyed Ducks and Geese being to all appearance quite
as quick- sighted as any other birds. Nor does

228 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

there seem to be any connection between colour
of iris and visual powers, both Owls and Hawks, for
instance, being found with either dark or yellow
eyes ; this is, of course, not surprising, as the iris
itself plays no direct part in vision, but some
correlation might have conceivably existed.

That some birds have powers of sight surpassing
those of man is known from the use of the Great
Grey Shrike by the Hawk-catchers at Valkenswaard
in Holland, who are informed by their tethered
Shrike of the appearance of a bird of prey before
they could see it themselves, and when nearer,
of its character, whether Harrier or Buzzard on the
one hand, or Falcon or Goshawk, by the degree
of agitation shown by the sentinel.

The Indian Roller (Coracias indie a), too, sitting
lazily on a telegraph wire in the glare of the Indian
sun, perceives and flies down to an insect or other
small prey at a distance at which human eyes
would certainly not perceive such an object; while
many must have wondered how a Kingfisher, or
even more a Gannet, discovers a fish and is able to
judge its distance from the surface sufficiently well
to make a successful swoop. It must be admitted,
however, that the Kingfisher at all events makes
at least as many misses as hits, not having so much
judgment as some of the birds of prey I have been
mentioning ; and, speaking of most birds, they do
not behave as if their power of sight were any
better than our own.

Diving-birds, however, may enjoy better sight

SIGHT OF OWLS IN DAYTIME 229

under water than we do ; at any rate it is interesting
to note that just as we use a water- glass to examine
the bottom, so do Grebes and Cormorants often
put their head under water to beyond the eyes
before diving to get a clear view. These hunters
under water can, however, generally see as well in
the air as any ordinary birds ; in fact, those I have
mentioned, and such diving-ducks as Golden-eye
and Mergansers, are notoriously very wary and
alert birds. Penguins, however, are suspected of
being short-sighted when out of water.

The powers of night vision which Owls and
Nightjars possess, also, do not seem to interfere
with their vision by day, the idea that they are
dazzled by daylight being solely due to the fact
that they are unwilling to move in the day. When
they are actually on the wing, they fly well enough
and avoid dangers and obstacles quite successfully,
and in captivity they show interest in birds flying
over, and even bask in the sun. In the case of
Owls, the curious peering movements of the head
certainly give the idea of bad sight, but these
gestures are indulged in just as much in the dusk
of the evening as in daylight, being merely a trick
of habit ; indeed, something similar is seen in the
more jerky head- movements of the Hawks.

The blinking of the upper eyelid in Owls is also
a very human action which may have helped to
suggest the idea of blindness in daylight, almost
all other birds winking with the inner or third
eyelid, which is drawn so rapidly across the eye

23o BIRD BEHAVIOUR

that it does not interfere with the gaze, and is
hardly noticed by the onlooker. The Dipper, or
Water-Ouzel, also blinks the upper eyelid like an
Owl ; the reason of this seems obscure, since other
birds that hunt under water do not do so.

Nor, as far as that goes, do all Owls hunt at
night ; many, such as the Snow Owl, Hawk-Owl,
Short-eared Owl, and Burrowing Owl and some
others, hunting either by day or by night, while
the Little Owl and Indian Little Owl (Athene
noctua and A. brama) come out while it is still
daylight ; in India I used to notice the latter out
at about five o'clock in Dehra Dun, while in Cal-
cutta they did not show themselves till nightfall,
no doubt owing to the hostility of the numerous
Crows, for I have seen a homing Crow swoop
at an Owl which had appeared a little too soon.

There are also some Nightjars which hunt by
day, such as the American Night-Hawk (Chordeiles
popetue), which is often abroad high in the air in
bright sunlight. Woodcocks and Snipe, which are
usually night-birds, may also feed by day.

Conversely, many of the birds which have no
special adaptation for night vision often fly and
feed at night, such as many members of the Duck
and Plover tribes, especially the common Lapwing
and Mandarin Duck, whose unusually large eyes
may, however, be an adaptation to these habits.
Certainly the last-named bird, in spite of his gay
colours — such being almost unknown in true noc-
turnal birds, which are sombre like mammals — is,

PEAHEN AS ADVENTURESS 231

judging from its habits in England, quite as noc-
turnal as some of the Owls, not stirring much
before noon, while the trampled ground in any
small enclosure in which specimens are kept shows
that they run about much at night.

Most Ducks, when free from human persecution,
are certainly inclined to diurnal habits to a greater
extent than their behaviour where sought by sports-
men would indicate, and M. Roger on says that
their night- vision appears to be no better than
our own, judging from the way in which they will
fail to see bread thrown to them at dusk. But as
they generally fly in the open and feed much by
feeling, this is no great drawback.

The ordinary day-birds certainly are just about
as much at a loss at night as we are, and can avoid
danger just about as much. Game-birds are gener-
ally particularly helpless at night, as we see in the
case of Fowls and Pheasants ; but Peafowl are
far more alert — I have known a Peahen which had
escaped from the former trading menagerie at
Covent Garden remain at large for months, in
spite of attempts at nocturnal surprises. The
Quail appears to be even actually semi-nocturnal,
for in captivity it freely moves about at night ;
one I kept loose in a room was quite quiescent by
day. The Lineated Pheasant of Burma (Gennceus
lineatus) has also been observed coming out into
forest clearings on moonlight nights.

Although Parrots are mostly diurnal birds, there
are some as nocturnal as Owls, such as the great

232 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

flightless Owl-Parrot or Kakapo of New Zealand
(Stringops babroptilus), and the small, flying, but
otherwise very similar Night-Parrakeet of Australia
(Geopsittacus occidentalis) ; and the sheep-killing
Kea seems to be active indifferently by day or by
night, which is one reason why its attacks on the
sheep are so hard to guard against.

Lord Tavistock has also noted recently that an
Australian Black Cockatoo which he had flying
loose about the park at Woburn was often on the
wing after dark, though of course mere flying after
dark does not necessarily indicate nocturnal habits,
as so many migratory day-birds fly at night. The
New Zealand flightless Rails or Wekas (Ocydromus)
are active by night as well as by day, and ordinary
Rails are great night-fliers. Swifts are said often
in hot weather to soar up and stay aloft all night.

Herons often move and feed either by day or
night, and Bitterns and Night-Herons (Nycticorax)
are true nocturnal birds ; I noticed, however, that
in our colony of the common Night-Heron (N.
griseus) at Calcutta, the birds did not seem to sleep
much during the day ; but the same thing can
be said of most Owls, only the Barn- Owls being
generally really asleep in the daytime, if one may
judge from their behaviour in captivity. Petrels
are nocturnal at their breeding-places, probably
from fear of Gulls and Crows, for out at sea one
sees them flying freely by day in the hottest sun ; I
have even seen a Storm-Petrel and a Clouded Yellow
butterfly flying within a few yards of each other.

RECOGNITION OF COLOURS 233

Just as Macgillivray suggested the Sparrow-Hawk
was short-sighted, so Professor Newton, in his
" Dictionary of Birds," remarks, with reference to
the easy-going way in which the Hedge- Sparrow
accepts an alien egg, that for all we know to the
contrary it may be colour-blind ; and within the
last few years, a fancier writing to the Feathered
World about Homing Pigeons has said that though
they can distinguish black from white, this is not
the case with colours.

The possibility of some birds not seeing as we
do must therefore be borne in mind, but as regards
the class as a whole the general evidence certainly
tends to bear out the commonly accepted idea that
their vision for colour is the same as our own.
This is shown in several ways ; for instance, they
recognize colour in other birds, and display either
friendship or hostility in consequence, according
to whether they are at the time in need of com-
panionship or in a position to feel jealousy. Birds
which are normally spiteful, for instance, are likely
to attack a species which bear colours reminiscent
of their own ; thus Jenner Weir told Darwin of
a case in which a Robin in an aviary killed a red-
breasted Crossbill and injured a Goldfinch ; and
an American Indigo-bird (Cyanospiza cyanea) at-
tacked a Nonpareil (C. ciris), which has a blue
head, and nearly scalped it. I have myself seen a
mated Blue Australian Wren (Malurus cyaneus) in
one of the Zoo aviaries furiously pursue a cock
Yellow- winged Blue Sugar-bird (C&reba cyanea),

234 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

which it certainly would have hunted to death had
not the keeper removed it ; and the Green Cardinal
(Gubernatrix cristata) has a bad name among
fanciers for spitefulness to birds of similar colours.

I have above commented (Chapter V) on the
alarm shown by birds at the sight of young Cuckoos,
though it may well be pleaded that as the
pattern is the striking point here, the evidence is
not necessarily in favour of colour- vision ; nor
need colour-vision to be postulated to account for
terror which the mixed birds in the Western
Aviary at the Zoo have shown in my presence at
the Grey Touracou (Schizorhis concolor), or the
Parrots in the large Parrot Aviary at the dark-slate
Vasa Parrot (Coracopsis vasd)> both birds of colora-
tion which, although uniform, is met with in some
birds of prey.

I have witnessed sympathetic attraction of
colour, or at any rate markings, when in Calcutta
I turned a specimen of the Silver-eared Mesia
(Mesia argentauris) into a large flight-cage with a
mixed collection, and saw that it at first associated
with the Black-capped Sibia (Malarias capistratis)
and White-eared Bulbul (Molpastes leucotis), before
finding out its really near relative, the Pekin Robin.

The House-Crows in Calcutta used to get very
excited when they saw a live or dead bird handled
which showed much black or dark colour, using
the same cries and gestures as they employed when
seeing one of their own kind handled ; I have
seen this when the subject was a Muscovy Duck, a

MISPLACED GENEROSITY 235

cock Amherst Pheasant, and even a Drongo-Shrike,
the sworn enemy of Crows. Here there is a case
of sympathy aroused by colour, but as in the above
case, no proof of perception of anything but light
and dark shades.

The old cock-fighters used to object to a hen-
feathered cock in the pit, owing to the fact that
the opponent of such a bird was likely to mistake
it for a hen, and so allow it an advantage while
courting it ; this might argue a perception of colour
on the part of the Fowls, as the distinctive orna-
ments of the cock — large comb, long hackles and
sickles — were shorn before the fight, so that only
the colour would be left to differentiate between
the sexes. But it must be remembered that the
pattern of cocks and hens is also generally very
different, the upper and under surfaces of the
former sex presenting marked differences in all
except uniformly coloured varieties, which were
rather rare in the pit game-fowl.

The preying relations of birds to warningly
coloured insects, to which I devoted much attention
in a long series of experiments made during my
residence in India, and published in the Journal
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, showed, in my
opinion, distinct colour-perceptions in the species
I employed for experiment, since these generally
preferred more plainly coloured butterflies to the
" warningly coloured " Danaids (Danais chrysippus,
genutia, and limniace, and Euplcea core), and the
still more striking " warningly coloured " white

236 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

Delias eucharis and swallow-tail Papilio aristolochia,
and of these only the two first species of Danais
mentioned were at all like each other in colour,
though I must admit that they could all have been
distinguished by pattern also.

The common Babblers I worked with appeared
to be deceived by the resemblance of the female
Nepberonia hippia to Danais limniace, though this
is not very exact ; and two species of Drongo
Shrike by the resemblance between the swallow-
tail above mentioned and the mimicking form of
another species (P. demoleus) which is extraordinarily
like the very unpalatable aristolo chics except in
having the abdomen black like most of the wings,
instead of scarlet like the spots on the hinder pair
of these, a distinction which was not so conspicuous
in life as it sounds in print. The intelligent little
Pekin Robin, however, was not to be deceived by
this very close mimic, but it was taken in by the
extraordinarily perfect resemblance of the female
Hypolimnas misippus to Danais chrysippus, a re-
semblance which is one of the " show horses " of
the theory of warning coloration and mimicry,
and usually deceives human entomologists if un-
prepared for it.

Speaking of birds' mistakes, I once saw a very
amusing one made by a cock Sparrow in Calcutta,
which flew down and picked up what he evidently
mistook for a beetle, the creature really being a
very small specimen of the local toad (Bufo melano-
stictus) ; and from the movements of his bill after

ONE EXPERIENCE ENOUGH 237

he had, immediately, dropped it, he certainly
would have " pulled a face " had his features
admitted of it. Such an instance enables one to
see how very advantageous the acquisition of " warn-
ing colours " might be to a nauseous animal, saving
it from some experimental tasting ; but unfortu-
nately for the theory, toads, and several other
animals with repellent attributes, have been singu-
larly unsuccessful in evolving such patterns.

The mere possession of a striking pattern of the con-
ventional " warning " type does not prevent experi-
mental tasting by novices ; my birds often tried an
insect they afterwards refused, and a very interesting
case of this occurred with a Starling (Sturnus vulgaris
menzbieri), which is only a winter migrant to
India, and probably knows little of the taste of
Indian butterflies. I offered this bird one of the
black-and-scarlet swallow-tails above-mentioned,
which was immediately gulped whole with charac-
teristic Starling greediness. But next day another
was not even touched, at which I was not surprised,
as this butterfly is so objectionable to birds that
often they will not even kill it.

So the lesson was well learnt, and such lessons
may be long remembered ; to a Starling I kept in
England, which, when I bought it, had been kept
for months in close captivity, and had had no chance
of seeing caterpillars, I offered those of the buff-tip
moth (Pygara bucepbala), well known to be un-
palatable to birds, and distinguished by a striking
black- and-yellow chequered coloration ; the bird

238 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

simply turned them over with its bill in search of
something better beneath, as if they had been so
many ends of string or bits of stick, while when I
had offered it a much larger green caterpillar
on a twig it ravenously tore it from its hold and
devoured it.

This experiment, by the way, wants repeating
under circumstances fairer to the caterpillar, though
as a matter of fact I was not trying to find out if
the bird would miss the insect owing to its protective
coloration, as I have once seen a green lizard do.
That is to say, if the power of a bird to see through
a protective disguise is to be tested, the insects
should be in situ beforehand in .a place to which
the bird is admitted without having been allowed
to see the preparations and so have its expectations
raised. Until it is experimentally proved that
birds overlook insects of protective appearance in
their natural environment, we are not justified in
saying that such appearance is of any survival
value as far as feathered enemies are concerned.

In the case of birds of prey there happens to be
some evidence of the value of protective resemblance;
a tame Peregrine Falcon flown at a Houbara Bus-
tard (Houbara undulata) has been seen, when the
quarry had settled and squatted, to alight and
search all round on foot without success, and
Lloyd, an excellent observer, says in his " Wild
Sports in Sweden " that the Swedes when trapping
for Hawks use a light Fowl, Pigeon, or what not
for bait in ordinary weather, but a dark one if

NO COLOUR-LINE OBSERVED 239

snow is on the ground. Moreover,Mr. J. G. Millais
in his " Breath from the Veldt " describes how
the Bateleur Eagle (Helotarsus ecaudatus) often
captures prey owing to its habit of scanning the
ground behind as well as before it as it soars, other
Eagles passing straight on and missing prey which
has squatted on their approach, only to get up and
move directly they have passed.

In all these cases, however, we must remember
that immobility may be a more important factor
than colour. With regard to the fruit food of
birds, it is to be noted that they eat red currants
sooner than the white variety of that fruit, but
colour may not decide this.

Whatever attention birds pay to the colour and
pattern of their prey or foes, they seem singularly
inattentive to it as regards recognizing their own
racial affinities, for the theory of recognition-marks,
which supposes that species of birds which are
closely alike except for colour and pattern are
aided in selecting partners by such differences,
is not borne out by facts. Whenever the difference
between two forms is so slight that colour, not
structure or note, is the only distinction, the birds
themselves disregard it, no matter how glaring the
difference may be.

This is best known in the case of the Hooded
Crow and Carrion Crow (Corvus comix and C. cor one)
in the case of our own fauna ; these birds seldom
breed in the same district, but when they do they
frequently cross, and the same is the case with these

240 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

species where they meet in their breeding-range
outside Britain, as in Central Siberia. Here also
our Goldfinch breeds and interbreeds with the
Grey-headed Goldfinch of the Himalayas (Carduelis
caniceps), a bird provided with excellent recognition
marks. Actual specimens illustrating these points
can be seen in the Entrance Hall at the South
Kensington Museum.

American naturalists will recall the case of the
Red-shafted and Yellow-shafted Flickers (Colaptes
cafer and C. auratus), two inter-breeding Wood-
peckers also well distinguished by hues and patterns,
and Anglo-Indians that of the Indian and Burmese
Rollers or " Blue- jays " (Coracias indica and C.
affinis), the latter much darker than the former, and
devoid of its conspicuous terminal tail-bar, yet
producing numerous intergrades, while the pure
forms, as in the case of the Crows, have actually
been seen paired up together.

Many similar cases might be cited ; in fact, just
where " recognition-marks" might be expected to be
of service, there they uniformly prove inoperative
to segregate species — as might indeed have been
expected when we see our variable domestic birds
infallibly recognize their own species in spite of
abnormalities in colour.

Neither does the study of the courtship of birds
exhibiting colour-variations encourage the idea of
preference for a particular type of colour. Sir
Ralph Heron recorded, nearly a century ago, how
all his Peahens fell in love with a pied Peacock, and

DISFIGUREMENT NO BAR 241

Mr. D. Dewar has observed that white Peacocks
in the Lahore Zoo had superior charms to the
coloured birds ; while I have seen London park
Mallard Ducks not only pair with all-white, grey-
breasted, and rufous-flanked drakes in preference
to the typical male in its full beauty of colouring,
but in one case recently even with a Spotted-bill
Drake (Anas 'pcecilorhyncha), which has no distinctive
male plumage at all. M. Roger on also says that this
Indian species, the African Yellow-bill (A. undulata)
and Australian Wild Duck (A. super ciliosa), none
of which have any distinct sex-coloration, never-
theless interbreed with Mallard as if all were of
one species.

Recently I saw at Kew a Mandarin Drake whose
left eye had been destroyed, and whose face on that
side was abnormally white, paired with a fine
unpinioned female, in spite of the presence of
perfect drakes, one at least unpinioned, which I
saw her charge with tail wagging defiantly, instead
of inciting her mate to do it, as is commonly done
by this most affectionate and selective species.
Another bird at the Zoo with misplaced wing, spoil-
ing his colour-scheme entirely, also has had a mate
for years, though Mandarin Ducks, like Mallard, will
tolerate bigamy rather than take to a drake they
dislike. I have, however, seen a case in the Calcutta
Zoo in which a Mandarin Drake of superior plumage
was preferred by the ducks to others, though these
were not positively defective ; and I have found also
in Calcutta a Linnet hen prefer a lame male with a
16

242 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

richer-coloured breast to a poorer-hued but per-
fect bird, and a hen Avadavat (Estrelda amandava)
prefer in two cases a bright to a duller-coloured
male.

If birds have the aesthetic sense with which
Darwin credited them, they may, like us, think
more of small differences than large ones ; golden
hair is generally admired by man, but no good
judge would put it, as a point of beauty, above
well-chiselled features, though it catches the eye
more at first. As against the possibility of birds
generally being colour-blind, we may perhaps set
the preference of the Australian Satin Bower-bird
(Ptilonorhyncbus holosericeus) for blue when choosing
decorations for its bower, and the liking of some
Weaver-birds for green and yellow wool when given
this substance to amuse themselves with in a cage.
It will be noted that yellow is a common colour
among Weavers, and that the eyes of the above-
mentioned Bower-bird are blue, a very rare colour
in live birds' eyes, though taxidermists are fond of it
in glass ones !

Before leaving the subject of the sense of sight
in birds, attention must be drawn to its extra-
ordinary acuteness in Humming-birds, which, as I
have been able to observe in the case of captive
birds, appear to be able to see glass ; at any rate
they do not fly against it as other birds constantly do.

The sense of smell in birds seems to be little
developed as a rule, not more than in ourselves, at
all events judging by their behaviour.

DEVELOPMENT OF SCENT 243

The Apteryxes, however, are exceptions, as these
birds, which unlike all others have the nostrils at
the tip of the beak, nose their way about like a
beast, even sniffing audibly. Some sportsmen also
are of opinion that wildfowl have a keen scent, and
should be approached accordingly with due regard
to the direction of the wind, as in stalking deer and
other similar animals ; and decoymen used to burn
a turf before their mouths when working a decoy,
so as to hide the human scent. St. John also
recorded that his domesticated wild Ducks scented
out a heap of diseased potatoes which had been
well covered with earth. On the other hand,
Mr. Millais found that wild Geese approached
quite near him when concealed in a pit, so as to
suggest they had no particular power of scent.

The sense may be well developed in the Crows,
for M. Rogeron says a pet Jackdaw of his could
distinguish between salt and powdered sugar,
which nevertheless were alike to the eye, taking
only a few grains of the one substance and a big
beakful of the other, and Dickens describes how his
second tame Raven disinterred the halfpence and
bits of cheese his , predecessor had buried in the
garden. Pigeons also used at any rate to be credited
by fanciers with liking the smell of aniseed, which
was supposed to attach them to a cote.

The only case in which I myself have seen any-
thing which suggested scenting power in a bird
was that of a Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros mala-
baricus) I kept in India, which, when offered

244 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

butterflies, refused the Danaids after pinching
them with the tip of the bill, and treated a cigar- end
in the same way. The latter substance might have
been rejected by touch, but in the case of the
insects, as the bird ate other butterflies, it seems only
natural to conclude that it detected an objectionable
scent by means of the posterior nares ; taste was
out of the question, as the tongue in the Hornbills
is so very short, and the beak, for some inches from
the tip, as dry and horny inside as out.

With regard to the very birds in which one
would expect scenting powers to be particularly
well developed, the Vultures, all the evidence is
against this, those who have experience unanimously
declaring that a carcase if well covered over is not
detected by them ; and in Darwin's classical experi-
ment with a hungry Condor the bird did not
appreciate the nature of the contents of a paper
parcel of fresh meat till he touched it with his
beak, in which close proximity the odour of raw
flesh would no doubt be detected by a human nose.

In spite of the less elaborate structure of the
internal ear, and of the absence of an external one
altogether, there is no doubt that the hearing of
birds is at least as good as our own, and in many
cases possibly even better. This is particularly
remarkable, because not only is the outer ear or
auricle wanting, but the ear-hole itself is generally
overhung by a dense patch of short and very firmly
rooted feathers, the ear-coverts, which sometimes
remain when the rest of the head is naked, as in the

GEESE AS NIGHT-WATCHMEN 245

Sarus and Australian Cranes (Antigone collaris and
A. australasiana). In most bald birds, however,
the ear-hole is exposed, as in the Ostrich and
Turkey, and so it is, curiously enough, in an
Australian bird with otherwise feathered head,
the Mallee-hen (Leipoa ocellata).

The perfection of birds' hearing may be accur-
ately judged of by the performances of the various
talking and mimicking birds, such as Parrots and
Mynahs, whose imitation of their models is often
absolutely perfect ; and the susceptibility to sound of
species which have not these vocal gifts is well known.

It is said that the wild Turkey, when being
lured within shot by an imitation of the hen's call,
will at once detect a false note, and be shy for the
rest of the season ; and the Canadian Goose dis-
tinguishes at once, according to Audubon, between
man-made sounds and the natural ones of the
woods and wilds, the crack of a dry stick under a
deer's hoof being discriminated from its breakage
by a human foot, and the accidental slap of £
paddle against a canoe-side from the flop of a
Turtle taking to the water.

Every one also is familiar with the Roman Geese
whose vigilance is said to have saved the Capitol ;
and whatever the historical value of the human
part of that portion of Roman history, no goose-
breeder, says Fowler, as quoted in Wright's " Book
of Poultry," would at all doubt it, his own experi-
ence corroborating it in every essential point. The
Roman poet's attribution of greater sagacity to

246 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

Geese than to Dogs is also borne out by a corre-
spondent of Hewitt's quoted in the same work,
who characterized Spanish (Chinese) Geese and
Guinea-Fowls, kept in a lonely place, as the best
watch- dogs in the neighbourhood, the actual dogs
themselves generally only giving the second warning,
so that it was thought they themselves relied on
the birds. The Peacock is also not inferior to the
Guinea-Fowl in wariness at night, and probably
also relies on hearing ; a few Pea-fowl in game-
coverts might prove an excellent and inexpensive
guard against poachers.

It has recently been noted in the press, too,
that Parrots kept in fortresses and on the Eiffel
Tower during the war gave warning of approaching
aeroplanes when they could not possibly have
seen them, and two writers, one who kept a Sulphur-
crested Cockatoo and the other a Ring-necked
Parrakeet, have recorded, the former in " Notes on
Cage-birds " and the latter in the Avicultural
Magazine, that the birds became aware of their
masters' arrival at home at a distance at which any
hearing seemed impossible. Even the Kiwi will
jump if one claps one's hands suddenly close to it
at night, though the waving of a white handkerchief
fails to impress its dull sight.

The sense of hearing is much more important
in determining the relations of birds to each
other than is generally supposed, and appears to
be more important than sight. Thus, the freely
interbreeding species which have been above

RECOGNITION OF RELATIVES 247

commented on resemble each other in voice, even
when this differs greatly in the two sexes, as in the
Ducks of the genus Anas mentioned, and birds at
once recognize and respond to a sufficiently accurate
reproduction of their call, as all field-naturalists
are well aware. Thus, I have made both a wild
jungle-cock and tame roosters answer me, though
I am unable to imitate more delicate notes, and
have made wild Duck circle round and lower their
flight by quacking to them. People who do not
want vicious cocks, by the way, should carefully
refrain from mocking their birds thus, as when the
fowl's brain has grasped the location of the chal-
lenge in the human, he will attack, and remain
permanently spiteful, in which case he is dangerous
to small children.

Different species — too far apart to readily inter-
breed— will associate if the note is similar, as in the
case of the Whistling Tree-Ducks (Dendrocycna),
when specimens find themselves isolated in cap-
tivity, different though they may be in colour.
But allied species have a wonderful knack of know-
ing each other by sight, even if colour and voice
are both different ; thus, the Mandarin and Caro-
lina drakes not only occasionally make love to each
other's females, which is not surprising, as these
are so much alike that one generally has to look at
them twice to see which is which, but the females
will reciprocate, although the two male birds are
very distinct both in coloration, decorative plumage,
and voice.

248 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

I was much amused on a most miserable Sunday
one January to see a very agitated Mandarin Duck
which had got left out in the pairing which was
going on despite the cold rain, establishing an
understanding with an equally forlorn Carolina
drake, in spite of differences of language. Her
gestures made it clear to him that she wanted him
to drive off Mandarin drakes who happened to
pass, and I saw him get two duckings from these
while I watched, 'although she was quite ready her-
self to follow any mated Mandarin till he turned to
drive her off.

The note of the male of her species certainly
seems to have a very potent effect on the hen at
times ; twice I have seen the common Starling fly
to her mate when singing, and pairing take place,
the only occasions on which I have observed this,
and possibly the " instrumental music " practised
by some birds may have charms to soothe the
feminine breast. On the only occasion on which I
ever saw the pairing of the Green Peafowl (Pavo
muticus), the hen signified her assent just after
he had rustled his train for the second time,
although on the first rustling, after she had
apparently been admiring his display with unusual
attention, she slipped round behind him, only to
come forward again.

At such times both this and the common Peafowl
utter a long-drawn and peculiarly shrill scream,
quite unlike their usual call, and this may have its
effect on the hen. I have also seen the common

VANDALISM IN SONG-BIRDS 249

Collared Dove stoop to her mate when he was
cooing, and the House- Mynah in India similarly
respond to the chattering song and bowing move-
ments of the male, though I have also seen her turn
on him for displaying, like the hen Sparrow.

In spite of their powers of hearing being similar
in character to our own, and their voices often
pleasing us, birds have no taste in music, as we
understand it, though we must also remember that
savage or primitive music does not appeal to us,
nor do we as adults enjoy the horrible noises, such
as slate-pencils " scrooped " on slates, which seem
to please children.

But it is at least curious that birds are so wilfully
perverse, as we should call it, in their selection of
sounds to respond to and imitate ; a Canary can
be got to sing in answer to the working of a sewing-
machine or the fizzling of a frying-pan, and will
often spoil its song by the interpolation of a Spar-
row's chatter ; while the various mocking species
of birds, such as the true Mocking-bird of North
America (Mimus polyglottus) and the Shama of
India (Cittocincla macrura) persistently degrade their
beautiful songs by imitating harsh cries. I have
also heard the Indian Orange-headed Ground-
Thrush (Geocichla citrina), a species which combines
the excellences of the Song-Thrush and Blackbird,
irritatingly repeat a most trivial and monotonous
note it had picked up in the Zoo aviaries.

Some birds seem to be able to hear notes in-
audible to us ; thus, the Starling when singing

250 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

frequently opens and shuts its bill without pro-
ducing a sound that I can hear, at any rate, but no
doubt the hen hears it ; and some of the little
Eastern Weaver-Finches known as Nuns or Manni-
pais (Munia), go through all the gestures of singing
while emitting scarcely any noise audible to us
but a faint mew at the finish. As the hens listen
very attentively, they no doubt can hear, and
evidently like the music, such as it is, though even
to them it cannot sound very loud, judging from
their close attention.

The sense of touch in birds is certainly not
facilitated by their structure — generally horny
beaks and scale-cased feet, and feather-covered
body ; but it is reasonably acute nevertheless. In
Ducks, in which the beak is covered, except at the
tip and edges, with skin instead of horn, it is no
doubt more acute than in most, and the common
Sheldrake has the expanded edges of the beak
near the tip so soft that it can fairly be said to
have lips, while in the Australian Pink-eyed Duck
(Malacorhynchus membranaceus) these lips are quite
large and hang down like the flews of a hound,
so that the beak should have much tactile sensi-
bility.

In Snipe and Woodcock, also, the bill is quite
soft at the tip, and these birds, like Ducks, feed by
feeling in mud ; but hard-billed waders like Storks
also grope in mud with much success, and many
of these birds also feel in the mud with their feet,
though this, like the scratching action often per-

THE PROBLEM OF WHISKERS 251

formed by Ducks in the water, has no doubt for
its primary object the loosening of the bottom to
stir up lurking prey.

The cere, or soft skin at the base of the beak in
Parrots, birds of prey, and Pigeons, may have some
tactile value, preventing these birds from plunging
the beak over the nostrils in the soft food, flesh
or fruit, on which so many of these birds subsist ;
at any rate, the only other groups in which the
beak has a soft covering are the Ducks and Flamin-
goes, in which only the end and edges, as has been
said, are horny, and these are habitually mud-
feeders, and seek food by feeling. The soft flanges
or lips, at the base of the bill in the nestlings of
Passerines, Hoopoes, and Woodpeckers, are also
sensitive to touch, and no doubt aid the young
"yellow-beak" to perceive the food the parents
offer it ; but they are not found in other young
birds even of the helpless kinds, and never in active
chicks.

Whiskers like those of many mammals are found
round the face and base of the bill in the Apteryx
or Kiwi, so beast-like in its behaviour, and pre-
sumably they may serve as feeling- organs in the
same way ; but it is less easy to divine the use of
the bristles found at the sides of the beak, and
often where it joins the forehead, in many birds
which feed on flying insects, and specially conspicu-
ous in the Nightjars and Flycatchers. They may act
as guides for the snap of the beak, but they are
absent in many birds of somewhat similar habits

252 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

to those which possess them ; for instance, the
Nightjars of the genus Chordeiles ;have none, nor
do the Swallows or Swallow- Shrikes exhibit them.
Yet they are particularly well developed in the
Barbets of the genus Xanthol<zma, of which the
Coppersmith (X. h&matocephala) is a conspicuous
example well known to Anglo-Indians, and these
are chiefly fruitarians, while the more omnivorous
Barbets of South America have bristleless mouths.

The feet of birds seem fairly sensitive to pain —
at any rate they nurse a hurt foot by holding it
up ; but generally speaking they are, like the lower
animals generally, very indifferent to injury. Ducks,
for instance, after being pinioned and released into
the water, do not look at the mutilated member,
but throw water over themselves as usual after
being handled, and may even begin feeding — in the
case of Tree-Ducks, which are far less nervous than
D neks generally.

I do not, however, think this justifies the opera-
tion, as I consider mutilating a bird for life to save
the trouble and supervision required to clip its wing
annually is slovenly management, and no person
who will not take trouble over them is justified in
keeping birds at all, especially as the birds which
are kept under restraint by pinioning them are
-exactly those which are not maintained for practical
purposes ; the operation would be pardonable if
needed to be applied to poultry, for instance.

With regard to the taste-perceptions of birds,
there are some puzzling problems. They often

GUSTATORY SENSIBILITY 253

are able to determine the taste of an insect, for
instance, by taking it up in the tip of their beak,
but sometimes, as in the case of the Starling above
quoted, do not seem to know whether they will
like such an object or not till they have actually
swallowed it ; in this case the sensation, satis-
factory or otherwise, must be determined by the
stomach. I have seen a toad swallowed and rejected
by two large Gulls in succession, and then tried
by a third, which after retaining it a while, threw
it up and looked at it, but swallowed it again on
seeing another coming to investigate, and retained
it as long as I watched.

Here the process of killing and swallowing by the
first experimenters had evidently eliminated most of
the toad's poisonous skin-secretion, but left a dis-
tinct power of causing disturbance of a kind ; and
after all we ourselves do not know in the case of
many articles of food if they will " agree with us "
till after eating. Birds after tasting something they
dislike will often vigorously wipe their beaks, and
this is a good sign to follow, if it be borne in mind
that wiping the beak may occur under other cir-
cumstances.

In the case of dry grain, etc., which is swallowed
whole, as by Pigeons and Game-birds, all pleasurable
sensation must of course be stomachic, and this
must be great to induce birds to swallow with
pleasure such substances as acorns, and monkey-
nuts in the husk, so beloved by Wood-Pigeons.
The birds in this case seem to come at an idea of

254 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

the edibility of an object by weighing it in their
beaks, and are often slow in taking to a new food,
as when beans are given to Pigeons, and white peas
to Fowls.

Generally speaking, the tastes of birds are not
so very unlike our own, having regard to the
immense variety of human tastes ; the Peregrine
Falcon, for instance, though it will eat Rooks and
Gulls, much prefers Ducks, Grouse, and Pigeons ;
and I found the whitebeam berries which the birds
so much appreciated had a mealy, satisfying taste,
like mashed potatoes— the sort of thing one does
not get tired of. Yet on the other hand, birds
eagerly eat the sour, bitter berries of the mountain-
ash, though even these are made by some people
into jelly.

Both wild and captive birds readily take to many
of the standard articles of human food, even though
not suffering actual hunger, as every one may see
in the fondness for bread they so often exhibit ;
sugar, too, is often greatly relished ; I have seen
Sparrows eat it in the powdered state in my rooms
in Calcutta, and carry it off by the lump at the
Crystal Palace.

A more curious taste is that for milk, which
appeals to a great variety of birds, and makes one
wonder if the Nightjar's classical reputation as a
goat-sucker, and the Zulu rendering of its cry
" Milk for your people," is such a fable after all, its
mouth certainly being big enough to perform the
featl

CHAPTER IX

The emotions of birds — Mentality higher than is supposed, but
variable according to species or groups — Strong- and weak-
minded birds — Intelligence and stupidity — The limitations
of instinct — Expression of the emotions and its relation to
courting displays — Love and sociability — Hatred and re-
venge— The police instinct — Monogamy, polygamy, and
polyandry — The problem of preferential mating.

THE facts detailed in the last chapter seem to
indicate that most birds have much the same
sense-facilities for acquiring a knowledge of the
outside world that we ourselves possess, and so it
is not surprising that they are, as far as we can
make out at present, as much like us in mind and
emotions as we can expect any of the lower animals
to be. One might in fact expect them in some
respects to be more human-minded than many
mammals, owing to their erect position in all cases,
frequent habit of perching, and general power of
flight — all tending to give them a wider outlook
than quadrupeds — in addition to the habit of
getting information from sight and hearing as
we do, and not, like most of the lower mammals,
thinking through their noses and thus getting an
entirely different set of impressions to guide their
conduct.

255

256 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

These similarities to us seem quite sufficient to
outweigh what ought to be the handicap of a non-
convoluted brain ; and in any case, too much
stress may be laid on these anatomical characters.
Rodents have non-convoluted brains, but no one
would accuse a rat of want of intelligence on that
account, and similarly among birds there are
plenty of species in many different groups that
can compare in intellectual power with almost any
of the mammals other than man. They all of
course stop short of human ability just where the
higher beasts do — when the power of speech is
needed to communicate impressions.

In observing the habits of the young chimpanzees
which our most enterprising dealer, Mr. J. D.
Hamlyn, imports and hands over to his talented
wife to receive the rudiments of a human education,
I have been impressed with the fact that these apes
are quite as human as children, at least till the age
at which a child should acquire speech ; but in one
which was kept in the Hamlyn establishment for
two years it seemed to me that there was no ten-
dency to further progress, as there would have been
in a child, and this one instance strikes me as
more valuable than many observations on apes made
to lead the dull monotonous life to which they are
condemned in public collections.

In estimating the intelligence of birds, we are
apt to be deceived by not understanding their
expressions of feeling, which afe, except in the case
of Owls, which have faces of a recognizably similar

OBSERVANT WOOD-PIGEONS 257

type to our own, not at first easy to interpret.
Thus, it is difficult to see in many cases if a bird
is observing anything or not ; every one must have
wondered at the apparent unobservance of common
Pigeons when a cat is stalking them, until their
flight at the right moment shows that they had
properly estimated the danger and were awake to
it all the time.

Woodpigeons, too, with an expression of stu-
pidity hardly equalled by any other creature, have
yet " sized up " the habits of man in a most scien-
tific way ; petted as they are in London, they will
fly away from a single individual walking through a
park in which they will settle on the hands of
a person where others are about, showing that they
have grasped the fact that men when in company
do not assault Pigeons, though a single individual
may be dangerous by owning a gun, for instance.

The apparently unseeing stare of so many birds
is no doubt the reason why they may often falsely
appear to us to be indifferent to the display of the
other sex, though there is also plenty of proof that
the said display may really leave them unmoved
or even cause anger ; thus, I have often seen the
hen Sparrow and in one case even the hen of the
beautiful Orange Bishop Finch (Pyromelana fran-
ciscana) turn savagely on the male as he was showing
off before her. Similarly, one very likely under-
rates the scenting powers of birds because they do
not sniff, having rigid-edged nostrils, but they no
doubt often detect odours nevertheless.
17

258 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

We must always remember that the mind of
birds is more like that of a young child or of a
savage than of an adult of a civilized race of men,
and this will help us to understand their actions
in many difficult cases. The apparent indifference
of birds to courting displays, for instance, may be
very like the behaviour of small children to a
stranger who takes notice of them ; children are
often in such a case apparently quite unconcerned,
but their friendliness on the next occasion, or
what one is told by their parents, will generally
show that they appreciated advances which they
seemed to ignore at the time — a fact I have often
been witness of, as I have the honour to be among
those in whom children instinctively place con-
fidence.

When a bird happens to have the same mode of
expression as a mammal, the resemblance in its
actions is often startlingly close ; thus, for instance,
it is well known that beasts have a habit — which
appears generally considered extremely touching,
but is to me peculiarly nasty — of licking their
friends. Birds do not generally do this, not be-
cause they are cold-natured, but because it is not
generally their custom to lick anybody or anything ;
but, to my great interest, a specimen of the Black
Lory (Chalcopsittacus ater), the tamest of Parrots
and one of a honey-licking group, licked my hand
as soon as I put it near the cage on our first intro-
duction at Mr. Ezra's London flat ; and a chained
specimen whose acquaintance I made years before

ANSERINE INTELLIGENCE 259

in Calcutta dropped from its swing on to my hand,
and there lay on its back, and tried, monkey-like,
to cling to me when I was leaving it. Others who
have had experience with Parrots will be able
to recall similar mammalian-like actions ; and they,
together with Hornbills, Guans, and Emus, are
certainly as fond of being petted as any cat or dog.

Geese may display very human attributes ; I
have seen in India a Chinese gander (the usual
domestic species there) sitting beside his favourite
goose which was incubating, with his neck laid
across her back, a position precisely analogous to
the embracing arm of a loving man or ape ; and
from the time of the philosopher Lacydes onwards,
instances have been recorded of common Geese
taking a fancy to individuals and following them
about with the fidelity traditionally associated with
dogs ; traditionally but not scientifically, because
if dogs were universally or even usually faithful
they could not be sold or otherwise change owners.

The most remarkable case of this that has come
to my knowledge is recorded by J. T. Smith, who
says in his " Book for a Rainy Day " that his mother
found when at Greenwich in 1766 a Goose which
used to go the rounds with an old woman who sold
pies and cheesecakes, and cackled at each customer's
door, going off to the next house if the words
" Not to-day " were uttered, and so on till the day's
business was done.

In spite of their stupid appearance, Geese are
\vell known to be so intelligent that such occur-

260 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

rences are not surprising ; Crows, on the other
hand, both look and are intelligent, as every one
knows, and I had not been long in India before I
saw played a trick which was often repeated before
my eyes afterwards ; the House-Crows would settle
near a Kite which had alighted on a building with
a piece of food too heavy to devour on the wing,
one taking up a position in front and one behind
it, and the game was then for the Crow in front
to badger the Kite until a favourable opportunity
occurred for the confederate in the rear to jerk
its tail, when of course the booty was snatched by
the front bird as the infuriated Hawk turned round.

As the Crows would pull a Kite's tail at any time
when the Kite was pre-occupied, as when drinking
or picking up a stick for its nest, it is easy to see
how the idea suggested itself, but the working out
of the plan showed intelligence, and the co-opera-
tion was explained by what I ultimately observed,
that the Crow which took the post of danger in
front allowed the other to take best part of the
spoil, thus showing that in all probability a pair
worked together, the easiest part of the plan, the
tail-pulling, being left to the share of the weaker
sex. I have heard and read of the same tactics
being used with dogs, but never saw this.

With a young Kite in its first plumage I have
even seen a Crow dash in and boldly snatch the
food from it direct. Only on one occasion did I
see the wily Crows " bested " by a Kite. This
bird, no doubt taught by painful experience, had

THE INTELLECT OF PARROTS 261

alighted in a strategic position on the corner of a
flat roof where it could not be assailed from behind;
and when two Crows appeared, evidently anxious
to obtain its booty, the entrails of a fowl, which
trailed across the roof for a foot or so away from
it, the Kite gathered up this loose portion under its
feet, and went on with its meal in a most uncon-
cerned way, while the disappointed Crows sheered
off in search of something easier to steal.

Although one must not attach undue importance
to their power of imitating our speech, there can
be no doubt, I think, that Parrots are highly intelli-
gent birds ; in fact, I can never understand why
they are not still placed, as they were by some
naturalists, such as Edward Blyth, quite the greatest
of ornithologists, at the head of the bird class,
since they present so many analogies with the
monkeys amongst mammals. Even the little Bud-
gerigar, with its Finch-like habits, is a far more in-
telligent bird than any ordinary Finch, for, once
its nervousness is overcome, it readily learns tricks,
much more so, I am told by Mr. J. Harris, who
makes a speciality of training these birds, than the
Greenfinch, a bird of about the same size, and
not stupid as Finches go.

Most people would probably say the common
grey African Parrot is the most intelligent of birds,
and, though its natural shyness results in its intelli-
gence being known generally only to its immediate
acquaintance, I have twice known it do remarkably
human things. In one case a bird boarded out

262 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

at a dealer's shop, a good talker in two languages
I was told, had become independent of the usual
head-scratching by human fingers, for it would
scratch its head itself with the swing in its cage,
grasping this with one foot as it stood on the perch
below, and moving it backwards and forwards over
its poll.

The other bird I was told of when delivering a
course of lectures at Maidenhead some years ago ;
this would scratch its head with a piece of stick,
according to the account given me, and though
with the usual perversity of the species it refused
to perform in my presence, it did at any rate
condescend to take the stick proffered by its owner
in its foot and hold it a while.

From my own experience I think I should rate
the great Salmon-crested Cockatoo of the Moluccas
(Cacatua moluccensis) as the most intelligent of
birds ; this will even make use of signs to intimate
its wishes, for when one approaches a Cockatoo of
this kind — they are always tame, being presumably
hand-reared — it will commence stroking its head
with its foot in an obvious invitation to " scratch
a poll " which is quite sincere, for I have never
known one abuse the confidence reposed in its tame-
ness.

The only other Parrot I have seen make this
sign, and that more rarely, is the large Red-and-Blue
Macaw (Ara chloroptera), and this also is the only
bird I have seen smiling ; when so doing it extends
the upper bill straight forwards and draws back

SIZE AND CHARACTER 263

the corners of the mouth, producing a weirdly ugly
expression which might easily be mistaken for
yawning, but is assumed under quite appropriate
circumstances for a smile, as when the bird is being
petted and played with by some one whom it
knows and likes.

Generally speaking, in birds of the same group
the larger species will be found more intelligent
and of more marked character than the smaller,
though there are numerous exceptions to this ; for
instance, an aviary of Parrakeets can be kept up
with much more safety than a collection of Cockatoos
and Macaws, and in a pond stocked with waterfowl
it will be found that all species larger than the
common Wild Duck are not only more tameable
and intelligent than that bird, but much more
jealous and vindictive, and apt to pursue their
quarrels to the death, while the squabblings of the
smaller species seldom lead to anything serious.

Pronounced vigour of character is, however,
also a prerogative of certain special types ; thus
among Parrots the Conures, though not large,
are birds of much character, and among Ducks the
Sheldrakes, though considerably smaller than the
Geese. Among small birds, too, I have found the
Pekin Robin (Liotbrix luteus) a remarkably intelli*
gent species, with plenty of presence of mind; if
turned out in a garden it will soon find its way
back to its companions in captivity, if there be any
of its own species, and displays no fear of the mob-
bing of the Sparrows, which, to do them justice, are

264 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

in such cases, According to my experience, actu-
ated more by curiosity than by malice, as I never
saw any of the Pekins I turned out in London
parks hurt by them, even if they happened to be
in poor condition.

I even saw one of these birds rob a London
Sparrow very cleverly; the Sparrow had carried a
bit of bread under the bush in which Liothrix was
perched, when the Chinese bird jabbered at him,
giving his alarm-note, and the Sparrow fled in
terror, leaving the bread to be appropriated by
his rival. Another bird of this kind, placed in an
aviary in Calcutta, detected and seized a small
cockroach which lived in a crevice and had baffled
the other inmates before he had been in the place
five minutes ; and on a perch having fallen down
with a great clatter on being shifted, was down
on the next one investigating the cause of the
disturbance before the flutter caused thereby
among the other inmates of the aviary had sub-
sided.

Should any one be anxious to investigate system-
atically the workings of a bird's mind, I should
strongly recommend this knowing little species,
which being largely insectivorous has more chance
of showing versatile intelligence than a seed-eater,
though some of these are very intelligent, not
only among Parrots, but among Passerines, such as
the Redpoll, Sparrow, and Baya Weaver.

There are undoubtedly many birds and groups
of birds whose intelligence is extremely low com-

AN UNJUST ASPERSION 265

pared with those I have dealt with ; such birds as
Bustards, Tinamous, Sand-Grouse, and Pigeons, for
instance, though often wary, are not what one would
call bright and clever. It will not do, however,
to try to estimate a bird's intelligence from its
morphological status ; for instance, Grebes are
supposed to be a " low " type, but my experience
of them is that they are very intelligent, far more
so than any other waterfowl, at any rate in the
case of the Indian Dabchick, a bird which minutely
examines everything, and as I proved, knows one
person from another, even though not fed by any
one.

Parker, from anatomical considerations appar-
ently, saw fit to stigmatize the Rails as a " feeble-
minded, cowardly group," which they most em-
phatically are not, when one comes to know them
intimately. The common Moorhen (Gallinula
chloro'pus) is, I should say, an infinitely more coura-
geous, intelligent, and generally strong-minded
bird than the wild Duck, though that is a good
steady-nerved sensible bird as Ducks go. Their be-
haviour in London well illustrates this, for whereas
both birds are kindly treated there, and have been
for many years, the Duck can never overcome the
timid instinct of hiding its nest, and rarely breeds on
small ponds ; the Moorhen will often nest in the
full view of the public, and at the time of writing a
pair had bred for years on a tiny island in a little
stone-faced pond in the middle of Goldhawk
Road in London, within a few yards of an electric

266 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

tramway, a big public-house, and a picture palace !
The Moorhen, evidently, would say with Diomed :

" Thou dost miscall retire.
I do not fly ; but advantageous care
Withdrew me from the odds of multitude."

In birds of the same group and closely allied
the same difference can be seen ; the Wood-
Pigeon, domiciled in London for only a few decades,
has shown itself much more ready to take advan-
tage of human friendship than the House-Pigeon,
which has been a public pet there for probably
as many centuries. The woodlander is now nesting
in absurdly low trees, even in those surrounding
Trafalgar Square, and even more readily alights
on people's hands to be fed than the other bird
does.

Among the Ducks the same thing can be seen;
I have only once seen the Carolina Duck dive for
food, when a female thus caught a fish at Kew,
yet its ally the Mandarin, though less specialized
as a swimmer, dives quite frequently for food, and
unlike other surface-feeders, goes under with its
food when worried by Gulls.

Observers of Humming-birds sometimes comment
on the very insect- like behaviour of these tiny
birds, but in this I fancy they have been misled
by the minute size and insect-like flight, for as far
as my observations, which I must admit have been
limited to a few captive individuals, have gone, I
cannot see that they show less intelligence than

MORE BRAINS THAN PLUCK 267

other very small birds, small species being, generally
speaking, more childish in their ways than large
ones ; in fact, the readiness with which Humming-
birds adapt themselves to captivity is rather a
proof of high intelligence than otherwise, since
such adaptability is often found in birds whose
intelligence is known to be high, like wild Geese,
which are much more easily tamed than Ducks.

Here, however, temperament may come in ; the
Ducks are intensely nervous as a rule, a remarkable
exception being found in the generalized Tree-
Ducks, which come in some ways nearer the Geese,
and are certainly like them in disposition. A
nervous bird, too, may nevertheless have plenty of
character and intelligence ; the Pekin Robin, a very
intelligent bird, as I have said, is frantic in a small
cage, bold and inquisitive in a large one, while the
intelligent Sparrow submits to captivity with a
very bad grace, bearing it worse than many less
intelligent species.

Like all the lower animals, birds have distinct
limitations of instinct, even intelligent species
constantly failing in adaptation — else they would be
human ; in the introductory chapter I have spoken
of the failure of the Sparrow to acquire the knack
of manipulating its food with its feet, and the
same may be said of the Starling, also an intelligent
and versatile bird ; while the intelligent Parrots,
except in the case of one species, never think of
making nests, so common an instinct with less
gifted birds, a peculiarity which no doubt accounts

268 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

for the fact that the comparatively very stupid
Pigeons, with much the same general distribution
and diet, have nevertheless on the whole a wider
range and greater success in the struggle for exist-
ence, since they can at any rate construct their own
cradles, and do not usually depend on holes, found
or dug out, for a breeding-place, as Parrots do.

The association between general intelligence and
strength of character and the hole-breeding habit is
often very marked, occurring in Parrots, Starlings,
Tits, and Sheldrakes, for instance, but as it limits the
breeding potentialities of birds, it must be regarded
as either degeneracy or a blind retention of ancestral
custom, as compared with the nest-constructing
instinct, and is no doubt favoured by the fitness
in other directions of the birds which practise it.
It is probably the great and general development
of the nest-constructing instinct in the Passerines
which accounts largely for the success of these
birds, since in general intelligence and strength
of constitution they do not seem superior to many
other groups.

A very large field of observation is presented by
the phenomena of expression of emotion in birds,
and it is intimately related to the study of bird
courtship ; for it is a very important point to
notice that the so-called courting pose is often
exactly that which is assumed under any emotions
such as anger and even fear, and that it is frequently
displayed by the hen equally with the cock.

Thus, to take a well-known instance, the Turkey-

BLUFF BEFORE FIGHTING 269

cock displays when about to fight just as when
showing off to the hen, and she herself may display
if the cock is slow in making advances, or if she
meditates an attack. The Ruff displays his frill
to his rival as well as to the reeve, and even the
Peacock has been seen to drive a sitting Swan off
her nest by charging down upon her in the display
attitude, while I have myself seen a Pea-chick no
larger than a Partridge suddenly display its little
tail when alarmed by a cat passing close by it.
The Muscovy Duck displays when about to pair,
when meditating warfare or on alarm— on any excite-
ment, in fact, and the duck is nearly as ready to
show off as the drake.

The Swan and Mandarin Duck display magni-
ficently for the purpose of bluff, but when about
to pair their movements are quite different and
less imposing, the Swan in particular flattening
down its wings, expanding the feathers on the head
and upper neck, and repeatedly plunging head and
neck under water ; while among the Tree-Ducks
there is frequently a marked display after, but not
before, pairing, both partners executing a step-
dance in the water with one wing held aloft.

Generally speaking, the gestures of males and
females in display are the same, but there are some
exceptions \ thus, among the typical Ducks — the
Mallard and its allies — the duck and drake use
quite different actions, though there is a marked
exception in the case of the beautiful Falcated or
Bronze-capped Duck (Eunetta falcata), in which

270 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

the very soberly coloured females show off simul-
taneously with, and with the same gestures as, the
highly decorated drakes, which is more than Man-
darin Ducks usually do, though they exhibit drake-
displays occasionally. In a case I noted one winter
when a pair of Blackbirds were disputing over food,
I observed both cock and hen running around with
trailing spread tails, as cock Blackbirds do when
courting.

As Darwin has remarked, all individuals of a
species display in the same way, and he might
have gone further, and said that the display is
often a group-character, and common to many
allied species ; though, on the other hand, one gets
sudden differences in this respect between near
allies at times, just as one does in the case of notes,
eggs, and colouring and decorations.

The Duck tribe furnish good examples of this ;
generally speaking, one may say they never display
by drooping their wings, though such a show-
gesture is a common one among birds. But display
by raising the elbows, and thus erecting the secon-
dary quills, is familiar in many species, especially
the white and black Swans, though the Black-
necked Swan (Cygnus nigricollis) does not practise
it ; the males of Ducks most nearly allied to the
Mallard rear and curtsey just as that bird does,
the plain-coloured species (like the Australian
Mallard and Yellow-billed Chilian Teal, Nettium
flavirostre) doing so just like the sex-decorated
forms, an important point, since it shows the display

SHOWING WHITE FEATHERS 271

is older than the decoration ; while the Mandarin
and Carolina Ducks, nearly allied as they are,
seem to have gone out of their way to display
differently, the former raising his crest as much
as possible, and throwing his head back and breast
out like a Fantail Pigeon, while the latter raises
his head and tail as if he were being lifted up by
an invisible string attached to each end, and posi-
tively flattens down his crest as much as possible.

This is a particularly interesting case, first
because the displays of other twin species with
high decoration — the two Peafowl, the common
Turkey and the brilliant Honduras Turkey (Melea-
gris ocellata), and the Golden and Amherst Pheasants
— are almost exactly alike, and secondly because it
is very rare for a bird to reduce instead of dis-
playing a decorative feature, although a similar case
is found in the Bulbuls, which also depress their
handsome crests when courting, though they erect
them when alert, as does the Carolina drake also.
It is very noticeable that whenever a bird has
any white about it, this is almost invariably the
main feature of the display, no matter what other
colours are present ; this is well seen in the court-
ship of the Magpie and the Great Bustard, and
the peculiar gesture of the Carolina drake is well
adapted to show off his white throat, while the
crest- expansion of his ally may be connected with
the fact that he has much more white in his head-
dress. On the other hand, the rear- up of the
Bronze-Cap drake conceals his white throat, as he

272 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

bends down his head after the fashion of his allies
the Gadwall and Teal when executing this gesture.

But another very striking display of white is
that of the Moorhen, which makes a great show of
its white under-tail plumage when angry, defiant,
or amorous, and the blue Porphyrio of India (Por-
fhyiio poliocepbalus) does the same thing. This
bird also claps its wings over its back when excited,
a gesture also found in the Globose Curassow cock,
and as every one knows, in our common Chanticleer ;
especially does he do this before crowing, but the
Grey Jungle-Fowl (Callus sonnerati) does not, so
far as I have seen, and the green Javan Jungle-Fowl
(G. varius) claps its wings after crowing, like the
Pheasants, which is interesting, as this species is
the most Pheasant-like of the Jungle-Fowl. In the
Silver Pheasant the crow is suppressed and the
wing-flapping becomes a buzz, though to me no
sound is audible, but the allied Lineated Kaleege
(Gemusus lineatus) is credited with making a noise
which suggests an earthquake, and the drumming
of the courting Ruffed Grouse of America (Bonasa
umbellus) is apparently produced by a similar
very rapid agitation of the wings.

It is in one of the Grouse that courting emotion
appears to reach its highest pitch ; in the well-
known love-song and display of the Capercaillie
the performer gets so excited at the highest pitch
of the performance that he gnashes and foams,
closes his eyes, and becomes deaf by the swelling
of the soft palate, while the tree he is perched on

SENTIMENT IN PEAHENS 273

absolutely trembles ; it is at this point that sports-
men on the Continent advance in stalking him,
though the admiring hens do their best to give
warning. Gnashing or snapping of the beak under
excitement occurs, by the way, among various
other birds ; it is particularly to be noted in Owls
when menaced, and in .the cock Rhea when
anxious about the safety of his brood.

The attachment shown by the Capercaillie hens
to the cock has parallels elsewhere, notably in the
fondness Peahens display for their favoured mate ;
Heron states that his birds went unmated one whole
season because their favourite was shut up, but in
a wired run where he was still in view ; yet his
rival was a black- winged bird, more beautiful than
the type, and the successful bird was pied. I
recently, however, saw a Peahen in Regent's Park
associate persistently with a black-winged Peacock
instead of a common one ; but the former was
nevertheless inferior in beauty, as he only bore
his first full train, while the other bird was at his
best. The older bird, although feared by the
younger, did not press his advantage ; and it is
this propensity to leave matters to the female's
choice that makes Peafowl and Mandarin Ducks
so suitable for the study of sexual selection, for
birds which fight matters out upset the issue.

In Peafowl the male seems to have no sentiment

about the hen, but in many birds the male is

selective whenever he gets the chance, which

seldom happens in the wild state, females being at

18

274 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

a premium ; the preferences of Fowls for particular
hens are, however, well known, and Chaucer makes
a great point of this in his story of Chanticleer and
Partlet. I have myself seen a large half- Spanish
cock always accompanied by bantam hens, where
the attachment must have been mutual, as he was
master of the yard and could have had his choice,
while he could not have compelled the attendance
of such active little creatures had they not actually
preferred him to the bantam cocks.

A Buff Cochin which was the pride of my boyish
poultry-fancying also was much in love with the
smallest and prettiest of our mongrel hens, and
a Globose Curassow cock at the Zoo was devoted
to a hen of the handsome zebra-marked aber-
rational type described as Grax hecki, preferring
her to three normal brown hens. He bred with
her twice, and when separated from her on the
second occasion lest his fury in defence should
endanger the chick (which, by the way, is a hen,
and typical globicera), moped and would not eat
for some days. Such grief is not unusual among
birds of strong character ; Rogeron cites a case in
which a Carolina Drake died of nothing else but
shock at the death of his mate, and Hume gives
two instances justifying the current belief in
India that if one of a pair of Sarus Cranes is shot
the other will pine to death.

Besides love, birds exhibit hatred in a very
marked degree ; their general rancour against
Owls is very noticeable, and high-spirited species

A DUCK-POND VENDETTA 273

of the same group often display marked animosity
when they meet ; for instance, Sheldrakes have a
general aversion to Geese, and usually bully them,
in spite of their own smaller size. The jealousy of
male birds is well known, and of course leads to
numerous fights ; but male birds will also fight over
nesting-sites, as I have seen in India with the
House-Mynah, the hens looking on as seconds.

The mobbing of Hawks and Owls is no doubt
often dictated by revenge; and birds may be ob-
served sometimes to harbour a grudge. M. Rogeron
describes a Brazilian Teal (Nettium brasiliense)
which had provoked a rather hot-tempered Mallard
Duck and been nearly drowned by her in conse-
quence, as never failing afterwards, whenever he
could do so safely, to smack her across the face
with his wing. Dr. A. G. Tutler gives a case
in which a Whydah-bird, whose long tail-plumes
had been plucked out one by one by a pair of
nesting Song- Spar rows, bided its time and killed
one of the little thieves ; and in the Calcutta Zoo a
pair of African Triangular-spotted Pigeons (Columba
guinea), which had been much annoyed by 'the
futile attacks of a male Cockatiel (Calopsittacus
novce-hollandite) which was breeding in the same
enclosure, revenged themselves on him by pecking
his young, when they left the nest, most severely.
This was an unusual procedure on the part of
Pigeons, which are not usually aggressive to birds
not of their own family.

As much may be said of most birds whose intelli-

276 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

gence is low ; unfortunately the higher in type
the mind of the bird, the more apt it is to be
indiscriminately vicious, as one may see in Parrots,
Crows, Weavers, and Sheldrakes. The Caracara
Carrion-Hawk (Polyborus brasiliensis) is also more
mischievous than other less intelligent birds of
prey ; I have even known one in the Calcutta Zoo
deliberately take any extra bit of food given him
up to the partition-bars separating him from an
Imperial Eagle (Aquila imperialist solely to enjoy
that bird's discomfiture at seeing food he could
not himself obtain.

Some birds are so churlish that they like as a
rule to be alone ; such are the " nobler " birds of
prey — Falcons and Eagles — and most Thrushes,
especially the Robins and Nightingales ; it is to be
noted that these, the finest singers, are also the
most cantankerous, and their most thrilling music
is, it is to be feared, often only a " hymn of hate " ;
but at the same time, hen birds are undoubtedly
impressed by song, and canary-fanciers are con-
stantly being troubled by a hen bird " pairing by
the voice," and so upsetting any matrimonial
arrangements they themselves have made for her,
for no other suitor will be well received in such a
case until the favoured troubadour is out of hearing.

It is quite a common thing to see affectionate
birds express their love for each other by fondling
each other's head with their bills, an attention
which human onlookers are apt to mistake for a
search for parasites. This is often a group-

THE CUSTOM OF CARESSING 277

character, being very noticeable in Pigeons, Parrots,
Babblers, and Waxbills, for instance ; but it also
occurs in other groups sporadically, being practised
by Penguins, Tree-Ducks, and Coots among water-
fowl, and by the Talking-Mynahs among the
Starlings. I have even seen a Muscovy Duck
caress her downy ducklings with her bill, this species
being the most motherly of all the Ducks, while
her ducklings for their part seem to cling to her
more than do those of others.

The caressing habit is connected with high
sociability in many cases, i.e. with a tendency to
associate in larger numbers than single pairs, and
to combine for mutual defence ; thus, the small
Indian Tree-Ducks will tackle other waterfowl
several together, and Mr. H. Wormald has lately
recorded how the White-faced Tree-Ducks (Den-
drocycna viduata) recently reared by him resented
the handling of one of their number, gathering
round with drooping wings — a very remarkable
gesture for Ducks — and flying up as if to effect a
rescue of the prisoner.

This drooping of the wings under social excite-
ment is no doubt the origin of the " shamming
lame " behaviour common to so many birds when
beguiling enemies away from their nests and
young, as in the case of the Partridge, Lapwing,
and Sheldrake ; though no doubt the habit,
emotional at first, becomes afterwards an intelligent
action, in some cases at all events. Similarly, the
" shamming dead " action, as exemplified by the

278 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

Landrail and Tinamou, is regarded by Mr. Hudson
as a kind of swoon induced by extreme terror ; but
I have noticed that cock Purple Sun-birds (Cinnyris
asiatica) when attacked by a rival in confinement,
hang from the perch by the feet as if dead, which
looks rather like a ruse de guerre.

Sun-birds, like all honey-eating birds, are very
pugnacious, but among these sweet-loving swash-
bucklers some, the comparatively large plain-coloured
Friar-birds of Australasia (Philedon), are full of social
instinct, and unite to drive off Hawks and Crows.
Hence has arisen the idea that they are " mim-
icked," unconsciously of course, by some Orioles
which live in the same islands and resemble them in
their sober snuff-brown colours ; but as the ordi-
nary gorgeous Orioles of Asia and Africa get on all
right without mimicry, and as in Australia itself
the Orioles, though not very bright, do not in the
least resemble the local Friar-birds, the theory is
unnecessary.

The police instinct which leads high-spirited
birds of active flight to attack predatory species is,
however, usually developed among solitary rather
than social species ; the King-bird (Tyrannus
carolinensis) of North America is perhaps the most
striking exponent of this policy, but he has a worthy
rival in the very abundant and conspicuous " King-
Crow," or common Drongo Shrike of the East,
while in Europe the Missel-Thrush takes up police
duty.

Birds may even assume the function of warning

AMERICAN KING-BIRD.

The King-bird is dark grey above and white below, with a flame-coloured crest, which,

when displayed, is said to attract insects.
278 [By permission of " The Graphic."

KING-CROW.

The King-crow, being very common, and habitually perching in conspicuous places, is
one of the best-known birds in the Old- World Tropics.

[By permission of '\The Graphic."

CHANGING THE SENTRIES 279

other species against man, as gunners in this country
well know in the case of the Curlew and Redshank,
while in India the Ruddy Sheldrake is the best
known sentinel. In the case of this bird the motive
is certainly not philanthropic, or rather philornithic,
for, as may be seen in our parks, it cherishes an
extensive prejudice against all other waterfowl,
but being naturally wary and excessively noisy
to boot, it becomes automatically the watchman
for its neighbours. Flocking birds of the more
intelligent kinds very commonly have sentinels of
their own flock, and in the case of wild Geese the
process of changing sentry has been observed ; the
sentinel may be approached by one of the flock and
touched, after which it lowers its head and begins
to feed, while the relief bird assumes the watching
position — or it may, as has also been seen, force
another bird to take its turn by dealing it a hard
peck.

In some cases, as is well known, sociability amongst
birds extends to social nesting, familiar to us in
the case of Rooks and Sand-Martins, though it is
more common among sea-fowl— in which it is
usual — than land-birds. The well-known Social
Weaver, the Republican Grosbeak of the old
naturalists (Pbilet&rus socius), carries the social habit,
usual among Weavers, so far as to construct a
common roof of grass, under which each pair con-
structs its own nest, and a somewhat similar habit
has been alluded to above in the case of the only
nest-building Parrot. As a general rule, however,

280 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

even birds which are social in winter nest in separate
pairs, though associations of two males and one
female, or vice versa, have been recorded ; and
polygamy is well known in many game-birds and
in Whydah-birds {Piduina), while polyandry appears
to be normal in Hemipodes and Tinamous, and
the parasitic nesters like Cuckoos and Cow-birds
are credited with promiscuity.

Generally, however, the pair are faithful, not
only for the season, but, so far as evidence goes,
for several years, probably until a stronger rival
ousts the older and weaker partner, for strength
appears to be the chief determining factor in bird
marriage. At the same time, sentiment presum-
ably has something to do with it, because one so
often sees cross-matings among the various species
of Geese kept in our parks ; Geese are very intelli-
gent, and not very amorous, and wild hybrids
among them are practically unknown, so that it
would seem that these irregular alliances are dic-
tated by congeniality of disposition where there
are but few of each species to choose from.

CHAPTER X

Song and cries of birds — Bird-language generally — Extent to
which the notes are instinctively developed — The instinct of
mimicry — Species which can imitate human speech — Problem
of this ability and extent of exercise of the same — Possibility
of understanding of bird-language by man.

FROM the earliest historical times the voices of birds
have attracted at least as much attention as their
flight and plumage, as is natural, for they are the
most vocal of all animals, voice being more charac-
teristic of them than flight, for there are a good
number of flightless species, as we have seen, while
none are destitute of voice at all ages and in both
sexes ; for even among the typical Storks, which
have evolved a sort of deaf-and-dumb language by
clattering the bill, the nestlings utter wheezing
squeaks, and although some of the males of the
Ducks are nearly voiceless, such as the Muscovy
drake, which only utters a wheezing sound as if
panting for breath, the females always have a distinct
loud note, though in the case of the Muscovy Duck
this is rarely uttered.

The curious bulb found at the base of the wind-
pipe in so many of the males of the Duck tribe

seems to act as a damper to the quack of the drake ;

281

282 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

thus, in the common drake, though he can make
a much louder noise than the Muscovy, the quack
sounds exactly as if he had an extremely bad
cold. Drakes, indeed, can seldom produce so full
a sound as the ducks, and the voices of the
two sexes are not interchangeable as they are in
some other birds — most of my readers must have
come across a crowing hen or a singing female
Canary, and every one knows the cock can cluck
and cackle just as much as the hen.

The voice of birds is produced in the syrinx, a
special vocal organ situated at the base of the
windpipe just at its bifurcation to enter the lungs,
and it is here in the drakes that the " drum " is
developed where it exists. Where it is present but
very small, as in the Ruddy Sheldrake (Casarca
rutila), the drake may have as strong a voice as the
duck, and where it is absent, as in the tiny Cotton-
Teal (Nettopus coromandelianus) the drake's note
may be stronger, the male in this little Duck
cackling loudly, while the female only squeaks like
a duckling. In the Tree-ducks there is no bulb,
and both sexes have a strong voice, uttering a
whistling cackle or a subdued twitter ; in fact,
they can modify their voices almost like the singing
Passerine birds.

In the latter the vocal muscles developed at the
base of the windpipe are particularly strong, but
the same development is found in the Crows, which
are not commonly reckoned as songsters, and in
one type of Passerine bird supposed to have a

THE IMITATIVE FACULTY 283

lower grade of " syrinx," as this vocal organ is
called, the Lyre-bird (Menura) of Australia, the
voice is very flexible and the bird is a splendid
mocker even when wild, and has been known when
brought up tame even to imitate human speech.

In the groups with the greatest perfection of
vocal organs great imitative faculty is common,
as we see in the case of the Starling and Jay, both
of them well known as talkers when tamed, and
given to imitating various sounds-— generally
cries of other birds — when wild. The Crows and
Starlings generally are the chief talkers and mockers,
and exercise the latter faculty even in the wild
state. Many people must have heard the Starling's
imitations delivered from a chimney-pot, and the
African White- necked Crow (Corvus scapulatus)
has been known to amuse himself by imitating a
Bustard's call, to the great discomfiture of the
pursuing sportsman. The abilities of our Sedge-
Warbler and of the American Mocking-bird (Mimus
orpheus) are also 'well known, and so are those of
the New Zealand Tui or Parson-bird (Prosthemaclera
novce-zealanditz), one of the honey- eaters.

In fact, in every country with a reasonably varied
bird-population there is sure to be some species
with the mocking faculty, exercised apparently
purely for the pleasure it gives as a rule. Audubon,
however, credits the Northern Shrike (Lanius
borealis) with beguiling small birds within its reach
by imitating the cries of a bird in distress, and
Dame Juliana Berners, in the Middle Ages, strongly

284 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

denounced our nearly-allied Great Grey Shrike
(Lanius excubitor) as an " ungratefull subtill fowle "
for the same treacherous manoeuvre.

But it is curious that such imitative birds do not,
when wild, generally copy human speech, though I
have myself come across a case which seemed
very like it ; when living a few years ago just north
of Regent's Park, I used to hear a voice in the very
early morning outside my bedroom saying " Pretty
Polly," and at first blamed some one for unfeelingly
putting out an unfortunate Parrot to shiver in its
cage in a cold spring dawn ; but ultimately I found
the talker to be a wild Blackbird, which came to
sing his matin song — which, as every observer
knows, is more varied than his musical perform-
ances given later on in the day — from a very tall
tree in a garden at the back of my bedroom. Un-
less the utterance of these words was a mere "fluke,"
he had probably picked them up at some time from
a Parrot, for the Blackbird is at times imitative,
though not nearly so much so as the Starling or
Sedge- Warbler, or even the Song-Thrush. If the
resemblance to human speech were merely acci-
dental, this might explain Pliny's story of the
" talking Thrush " in the possession of the Em-
press Agrippina in his day, for the Thrush is
notorious for the human-like phrasing of its song.

I do not know that the well-known and celebrated
black talking Hill-Mynahs (Eulabes) of the East
exercise any mocking faculty when wild, but if
they do not it would be nothing wonderful, con-

A MUSICAL PARRAKEET 285

sidering the talking faculties of Parrots, which
have a less elaborate vocal apparatus than these
Mynahs or other Passerine birds, and seem to
have no imitative faculty at all until reclaimed by
man ; though as a matter of fact, I do not suppose
much is known of the intimate habits of Parrots,
which, like most birds of particular interest to the
" man in the street," are neglected by ornithologists,
and are in any case not easy to study when wild,
most of them either spending all their lives in the
tree- tops, or at any rate retiring to them when
not feeding.

At least one can sing, however, the familiar little
Budgerigar, and this bird, when hand-reared, can
be taught to talk — hardly any Parrot, by the way,
will learn anything when adult ; but in the case of
the present species I have known an unmated cock,
kept in an aviary along with a Thrush and other
birds, learn the Thrush's rather complex song
quite perfectly, though of course his rendering of
it was in a very " still, small voice."

Several of the other non-passerine groups contain
singers, song having been recorded in Hornbills,
Kingfishers, and Humming-birds, the singer in the
last case being the smallest or almost the smallest
of all, the Vervain Humming-bird (Mellisuga
minima) ; in fact, generally speaking, song-birds
are small members of their groups, the large Lyre-
bird being quite an exception. The Amherst and
Cheer Pheasants also undoubtedly sing, if the song
is not very musical, and observers of that charming

286 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

little diver, the Long-tailed Duck of our northern
coasts (Harelda glacialis), speak of its " song."

Song, it must be understood, is quite a con-
ventional term when used in the ordinary way ;
technically it means any noise which is not a call-
note ; thus the Cock's crow is just as much a song
as the Nightingale's musical efforts. With short
simple songs like the Cock's crow and the Chaffinch's
short outburst, the development is instinctive ;
but anything more complicated has generally to be
learnt from others of the species, and the result of
this is that a hand-reared bird, if uneducated,
sometimes turns out a most extraordinary jumble
in which no trace of the proper song can be detected.
Thus, an old school friend of mine, Mr. C. Bard-
well Clarke, brought up a young Linnet, which,
reared in a town, developed no Linnet notes at all,
but sang a jumble of the Starlings' whistles and the
chattering of the Sparrows ; and conversely, a
Sparrow brought up with singing birds will produce
a noise we can accept as song, instead of the " chip,
chip, cheer " which seems to be the natural and
spontaneous outpouring of the Sparrow's soul.

The Brambling, by the way, is an example of
another Finch which sings disgracefully for a
member of a family including such talented creatures
as the Linnet and Canary, for the only note in his
song is " zee-e," an expression of emotion which
can be bettered even by Pheasants and waterfowl.

It is only among Passerines and Parrots, however,
that the power of mimicry occurs, and hence only

RATIONAL MIMICRY 287

these birds are ever talkers, for only imitative birds
have the power of speech, though not by any means
all of such species ever develop it, however great
may be their opportunities when kept tame.

Considering the difference in the vocal organs of
birds f and men, this imitation of our speech is
certainly not the least wonderful of their pecu-
liarities, especially as vocal mimicry under natural
conditions cannot be of the least service to them
as a rule, but is merely latent altogether, as seems
to be the case with Parrots in the wild state, or
is only used by way of amusement, with the excep-
tion of the Shrike's alleged treacherous custom.
An Indian Shrike which preys on frogs, by the
way, has been noticed to incorporate the screams of
the hapless batrachians in its song, so that it is
quite easy to see how the Great Grey Shrikes of
the north might easily begin imitating the cries of
distressed birds merely for amusement, and then
develop the habit for profit as well as pastime, as
described by Audubon and Dame Berners.

This would make a close approach to rational
speech, and no one who has seen much of intelligent
Parrots can doubt that these birds have at least
some idea of the meaning of what they say. For
instance, I have never heard, or heard of, any
Parrot ask for any sort of refreshment unless it
saw food, or use any inappropriate word at such
times, though it might not know the exact expres-
sion. Such a bird, for instance, behaves much like
a person groping a way through a foreign language,

288 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

or a child learning to speak. Thus, I have known a
Lemon-crested Cockatoo which always said " Cocky
wants some breakfast " or " Cocky wants some
water " at meal-times, obviously not knowing the
exact words, but at any rate using expressions which
had something to do with refreshment. He never
said " Good-night " at such times, though he said
this regularly when left alone finally in the evening.

Every one who has had acquaintance with one
of the larger and more intelligent Parrots will
recollect instances like this, and if Parrots do not
develop a higher degree of rational conversation
than they do, this is partly due to the fault of
their teachers, as well as to the paucity of ideas
one would expect in one of the lower animals.

Other talking birds, such as Mynahs, Ravens,
etc., seem not to be so rational in their conversation
as Parrots, however good their enunciation may
be, and though I have heard Mynahs make some
astonishingly apposite-sounding remarks, this result
always seemed to me to be purely accidental, and
not due to the attempt to really utilize speech as
Parrot sometimes do.

In Parrots at all events talking power has nothing
to do with sex, for female birds talk just as well
as males ; in fact, one experienced dealer, Mr. C. P.
Arthur, who is also a taxidermist and has thus
dissected many of the well-known African Grey
Parrots, states that in his experience he never
came across a male of this species. This may have
to do with the fact — if it is a fact — that Parrots

MUSICAL FEMALE BIRDS 289

are not naturally mockers, but only develop the
imitative habit under human control and cultiva-
tion; for, as every one knows, Passerine birds, to
which all other talking and mocking species belong,
generally only sing when of the 'male sex. And
though to this there are numerous exceptions, of
which the hen of the beautiful Red Cardinal of
America (Cardinalis cardinalis) is perhaps the best
known, still there is no hen bird which sings better
than her mate, and none which sings while the
male is mute ; though, as we have seen in the case
of the Ducks, and as is also the case with the Guinea-
Fowl, the female may have a much stronger voice
than the male. In these cases, however, he is still
much more loquacious than she is, and although his
voice to us sounds weaker, her ear may be more
attuned to it.

There are some curious cases of coincidental
resemblances between voices of unrelated birds
and between sounds made by birds and by mammals
and even produced by mechanical means, which
deserve attention. Many people must have noticed
the great resemblance between the piping call of
the Kingfisher and that of the common Sandpiper,
and between the note of the Kestrel and that of
the Wryneck I have noted others in cases where
the birds do not occupy the same country, at any
rate when breeding ; thus the pretty Wire-tailed
Swallow (Hirundo smitbii) of Africa arid India has
exactly the same call-note " swee-et " as the Canary,
an Azorean species ; and an Australian Dove

19

29o BIRD BEHAVIOUR

(Geopelia bumeralis) has one note exactly like that
of the common Cuckoo.

Cuckoos themselves are just as remarkable for
curious notes as for parasitism and for resemblances
in appearance to birds of alien families ; thus
we have the well-known " Brain- fever -bird " of
India (Hierococcyx varius), with its strange tri-
syllabic notes running up the scale, and preceded
by an overture, while the dissyllabic note of the
Koel (Eudynamis honorata) also runs up the scale.
Our own Cuckoo's note is known to be so truly
musical that it can be imitated easily by mechanical
means and even struck on the piano, and as every
one knows is so readily rendered by the human
voice that " early Cuckoos " are always regarded
with grave suspicion.

Nightjars also have many strange notes, the
machine-like whirring of our familiar species being
rivalled by the singular sound produced by a
common Indian species (Caprimulgus indicus), which
is just like the sound of a stone bounced along ice ;
and the human-sounding notes of the American
" Whip-poor-will " (Caprimulgus vociferus) have
long been celebrated.

Other mammalian voices besides man's come in
for this fortuitous imitation ; the roar of the cock
Ostrich is not unlike that of the lion, and the
American Cat-bird (GaleoscopUs carolinensis), which
is a Mocking-Thrush, and the Australian Cat-bird
(MlurceHus viridis), one of the Bower-birds, have
obtained their names from their cat-calls, while

COINCIDENCE IN THOUGHT 291

the Eagle yelps like a little dog, and the Bittern
bellows like a bull.

Resemblances to mechanical sounds are also
curiously common elsewhere than among Night-
jars; the Coppersmith Barbet's note is just like
a little gong regularly beaten ; and the Naked-
throated Bell- bird (Chasmorbynchus nudicollis)
of South America has a really magnificent me-
tallic clang, like a bar of iron struck with a rod,
which, overpowering though it is close at hand, is,
I think, at a reasonable distance, the finest bird
note I have ever heard. The more celebrated Bell-
bird proper (C. niveus), whose note is said to be like
a church bell, is nearly related.

Old legends and fairy-tales are full of allusions to
people who could understand the speech of birds,
and, quite apart from talking birds which un-
doubtedly do at times make their linguistic acquire-
ments serve their ends, there seems to me con-
siderable possibility of men understanding the
notes and gestures of birds at least as well as these
do each other. A man and a bird may have the
same idea at once ; thus, just before I saw the
Song-Thrush above-mentioned catch the minnow,
I remember thinking, " I wonder if that bird could
catch one of those fish ; " and on the first occasion
on which I saw a Peahen take distinct notice of a
Peacock's display, gazing attentively at his train,
the Peacock and I both had the same idea — that the
favourable moment had come ; and we were both
mistaken, and mistaken twice in quick succession.

292 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

In watching waterfowl I have had similar experi-
ences ; at the time of writing the waterfowl at St.
James's Park were restricted to a comparatively
small area of water at the east end of the park, the
rest of the pond being .drained, and the young
Mallard ducklings have been coming close up to
the path to be fed. An old Duck, watching her
brood with anxious quacks, gave an extra loud one
as a Canadian Goose came too near them for her
satisfaction, and the ducklings bolted helter-skelter
into the pond. Now it was perfectly obvious that
all the old Duck meant to say was " Keep away
from that Goose " — a few feet's retirement would
have been sufficient ; but all her vocabulary allowed
was " danger," and the ducklings promptly acted
on the word. Here I could understand the Duck,
but the ducklings could not ; in another case a
drake and I were both at a loss. A pair of Man-
darin Ducks were, at a dealer's, confined in a
hutch with perches, and were roosting on the top
one. The duck started pulling at the drake's
crest until she fairly upset him, and he fell to the
floor ; but when he mounted again she let him
alone, being now next the wall, and it became
obvious to me that she wanted the inside berth,
was not active enough to jump over him, and
could not explain to him any more than to me
that she wanted him to get out of her way.

CHAPTER XI

Weapons and fighting methods of birds — Their combats with
each other and with various natural enemies — Chief enemies
of birds — The passive resistance of birds to unfavourable
climate and surroundings — Natural defences — Perfection and
degeneracy of plumage in this connection — Powder-coating of
some groups.

IN the state of war in which birds, like other wild
creatures, perforce exist, they are naturally often
called upon to fight, though better qualified, by
their general power of flight, for escaping than
most other creatures ; and it is noticeable that
some of the most formidable fighters are found
amongst those in which the power of flight is
wanting or not highly developed — the great running-
birds and the Game-bird tribe. The Ostrich holds
its own among the African quadrupeds by dint of
the power of its great feet, the single claw on the
longer of its two toes being such a terrible weapon
that it can pierce corrugated iron; and any beast
up to the size of a hyaena has to avoid the Ostrich's
wrath. These great birds draw themselves up and
strike out with one foot, the Emu and Cassowary
being very formidable kickers as well as the Ostrich.
In the Cassowaries one of the claws, the innermost,
is specialized as a weapon, being unusually long

293

294 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

and straight; and the native tribes which inhabit
regions where these birds live use it as a head for
their spears.

The Rheas fight with bill as well as feet, holding
on like bull-dogs, and bill- and foot-fighting is the
rule among the Game-birds ; every observer must
have seen how fighting cocks strive to get a hold
with the bill and with that purchase to deliver a
telling blow with the spurred legs.

It is only among the Game-birds that spurs on the
leg occur at all, and they are generally single, and
normally confined to the male, as in the Fowl, Turkey,
and common Peacock ; but there are several groups
in which the cock has two or more spurs on each
leg, such as some of the African Francolin Part-
ridges (Pternistes) and the Asiatic Spur-Fowls
(Galloperdix) with two, the females of the latter
having one ; the Peacock-Pheasants (Polyplectron) and
Blood-Pheasants (Ithagenes) have variable numbers
in the male birds, in the common Himalayan
Blood-Pheasant the cock having up to four on
one leg and five on the other ; while I notice that
in three wild-bred and fully adult cock Grey
Peacock-Pheasants (P. chinquis) in the London Zoo
at present one bird has two spurs on each leg, one
one on one leg, and the third none, from which I
argue that such multiple spurs do not seem to be of
much use. Besides the hen Spur- Fowls, the hens
of the Crestless Pheasants (Acomus) and of the Javan
Pea- Fowl are spurred as well as the cocks.

The long single spurs seen in the Fowl and some

FIGHTING QUALIFICATIONS 295

similar birds are really terrible weapons ; the wild
Jungle-Fowl is a terrible fighter for his size, and
his least- modified tame descendant the game-
cock, a professional gladiator, has even been known
to kill a fox, this supreme gallinaceous exploit
having been chronicled in a sporting magazine
about a hundred years ago.

Ceylon Jungle-Fowl can beat ordinary tame
Fowls, and the common Indian red one has been
seen to thrash a Kaleege Pheasant (Gennaus),
which is more than a match for our Pheasants. So
is the little wiry Gold Pheasant, curiously enough,
a result which must be due to his extreme activity,
since his spurs are rudimentary. The springing
necessary in birds which fight with both feet at
once, as these do, gives of course a great advantage
to the more active bird if other qualifications are
anywhere near equal ; the average heavy tame
Cock cannot beat the common Pheasant, though
the Jungle-Fowl can do so. Besides the slayer of
Reynard, another game-cock, recorded in Teget-
meier's poultry- book, has won fame by killing a
Kite, and even the game-hen, as Wright's poultry^
book relates, has been known to kill a rat, a Rook^
and even a Hawk.

As Mr. MacDonald, the pheasant-keeper at the
Zoo, gave me an opportunity of observing, the Glo-
bose Curassow Cock (Crax globicera) when attacking
his attendant's foot, did not strike, but gripped with
the claws and bit, thus showing a method of attack
jnore like that of a Passerine bird, and to these

296 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

perchers the Curassow and Guan family show a
slight approximation in form and habits, being the
least specialized of Game-birds. The grappling
unscientific method of fighting is very marked in
Passerine birds, whose fights are regular "tooth-
and-claw " performances. Rails, such as our
Moorhen and Coot, also grapple in this way.

The Game-birds, especially Grouse, use their
wings as well as their beaks and feet in fighting,
but the most notable wing-fighters are the Pigeons,
the Duck tribe, the Plovers and Snipes, and the Pen-
guins. Some of these groups are regular professional
boxers, and may be even armed with knuckle-dusters,
as the Sheldrakes and that giant extinct flightless
Pigeon, the Solitaire (Pezo-phaps soli tar ius) of Ro-
driguez ; or have spurs on the pinion- joint, as in the
Spur-wing Geese (Plectropterus) and Spur-winged
Lapwings of several kinds, besides the "lily- trotting"
Jagan&s, several of which are spur-winged. The
Screamers have two spurs on each wing — a large
one on the pinion, and a smaller one nearer the
tip of the wing. All spur-winged birds are spurred
in both sexes, and in none of them do the spurs
represent claws, being never at the ends of the
digits. The Torrent-Ducks (Merganetta) of the
Andes have spurs on the wings, but here it is just
possible that these may be grappling-irons for
climbing slippery rocks, as the New Zealand Tor-
rent-Duck (Hymenolcemus malacorhynckus) is said
to use its wings for scrambling up rocks, though in
this species they are only knobbed, not spurred.

AFRICAN JACANA.

Showing the long toes and claws characteristic of this family of birds, and enabling them

to walk on water-plants.
296

CUBAN TROGON.

Noticeable in the Trogons are the very grouse-like wings and bill, though the habits of the
birds are not at all like those of Grouse.

KNUCKLE-DUSTERS AND SPEARS 297

The spurs of the great Spur-winged Geese are
certainly very formidable weapons, for it has been
found possible to leave these birds out in the
open at night at the Cairo Zoo, although jackals
and wild cats visit this at night. Similarly at
Calcutta, where similar quadruped foes were to be
feared, Sarus Cranes, White Siberian and Man-
churian Cranes (Antigone antigone, Anthrofoides
leucogeranus, and Grus viridirostris) could be left
out, as well as Adjutant and Marabout Storks
(Leptoptilus dubius and javanicus) and Jabirus
(Xenorbynchus asiaticus), while the smaller Storks
and Cranes had to be shut in. The bayonet-like
bills of these birds are formidable weapons, and
they are not antagonists which man himself would
wisely attack unless armed at least with a stick ;
no doubt there was some truth in the classical
legends of pigmies being defeated by Cranes,
especially if by this title, as I have elsewhere sug-
gested, one of the great carrion- eating Storks was
meant. In the fights of the Adelie Penguin it
has been noticed that the males " fight fair " with
their flippers, but hens bite like suffragettes.

Those most redoubtable fighters, the birds of
prey, whose daily food is often gained only by a
fight, rely mainly on the terrible stroke or grip of
their talons, and use their beaks but little, though
the Falcons often break the neck of the quarry
with the bill after bringing it down. When cor-
nered on the ground, they go over on their backs
to fight, as do Herons also. Often Hawks and

298 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

Eagles fight in mid-air, grappling with the claws
and spinning round and round ; but they generally
let go in time to avoid a fall. Quite innocent-
looking little birds may however forget to do this ;
I once picked up in the Calcutta Museum buildings
a couple of House- Swifts (Cypselus affinis) so tightly
clenched claws to claws that it was quite difficult
to pull them apart. No doubt it is loss of presence
of mind owing to over- excitement like this that
makes Sea-Eagles and Ospreys hang on to too
strong prey till they are drowned, since under the
fear of man they can let go their grip of their
quarry quickly enough.

Some birds rely almost entirely on biting, such
as Gulls, Shrikes, and Parrots, the last of which
can of course do great execution ; but Parrots have
a silly-looking habit of trying to ward off a foe with
one foot, which looks like asking for trouble, for
both they and some stout-billed Finches, such as
Weavers and Java Sparrows, make a point of biting
the adversary's feet, like hyaenas among mammals.

It is curious, by the way, that birds seldom aim
at the throat of their enemy, the back of the head
being the part attacked in most cases. The weak-
ness of their necks, always comparatively long, puts
them at a great disadvantage in contests with
beasts, but on the whole they " get a good deal of
their own back," and large numbers of the smaller
and younger carnivorous mammals fall victims to
birds of prey ; I have heard of a case of the Nepal
Eagle-Owl (Huhua nepalensis) killing a full-grown

RAVAGES OF ENEMIES 299

civet-cat, to say nothing of the instances of rap-
torial prowess related in a previous chapter.

Mammalian enemies, however, and in the tropics
snakes, crocodiles, and the large lizards, account
for an enormous number of birds, and their ravages
are in many cases chiefly directed against the more
or less helpless young. Fish and other purely
aquatic creatures take their toll; pike are great
enemies to young waterfowl ; tiger-fish (Hydrocyon)
in Africa have been seen to take Bee-eaters when
swooping to the surface of water, as trout take
flies ; a fin-back whale has been found to have
swallowed several Cormorants ; and no doubt the
almost complete absence of diving-birds from the
tropical seas is connected with the abundance
there of sperm-whales and of sharks and other
large predatory fish ; it will be noticed that the
mammalian analogues of such birds, the seals,
are also very scantily represented in tropical waters.

Of special defences against attack, such as one
sees among mammals in the armadillos, and among
reptiles in the tortoises, we find little trace in birds,
though their feathers are of themselves a very
efficient armour, often even turning shot, as sports-
men well know. The air-celled skin of the Screamers
may act as padding against their wing-spurs when
they fight, and the callous pad on the breast of
tfye Ostrich commonly receives the kick of his
adversary, though its primary uylity is most evi-
dently to bear his weight when lying down.

The frill and warted face of the Ruff have been

300 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

cited as defensive structures, but this view is, I
am sure, quite mistaken ; the fights of Ruffs are
most feeble affairs, the birds never really hurting
each other even though fighting, as they often do,
when in undress ; their beaks are blunt and weak,
they do not use their feet, and all they can do is
to slap with their wings, the blows of which do
no serious harm ; while as to the facial warts, some
specimens never develop them at all.

A much better defence is " bluffing " by expan-
sion of the wings or feathers, as is done by Owls,
Bitterns, Painted Snipe (Rhynchaa) and other
birds ; this often suffices to keep the enemy from
hostilities altogether, and may be the original object
of the so-called sexual display. The Swan and the
Mandarin Drake certainly believe in displaying to
bluff an enemy, and so do the Peacock and Turkey-
cock, while the Ostrich often displays before com-
mencing hostilities — in fact, the habit is very
general among birds, and may be compared with
the hair- bristling of mammals.

I have seen some very amusing instances of this,
as when a Canadian and a Greylag Gander once
defied each other by display before me in Regent's
Park, with out-stretched necks and lowered and out-
spread tails ; ultimately the Canadian lay down as
if daring his enemy to shift him, whereupon the
said enemy sheered off and declined actual hos-
tilities. I have also seen in the Calcutta Zoo a
Crane try to bluff a Pelican by opening its bill at
it, only to flee in horror when the Pelican returned

SOME URBAN DEGENERATES 301

the compliment — though as a matter of fact a
Pelican is a very poor fighter for its size, and I have
known of two instances in which one of these
awkward birds was killed by a Swan.

The plumage of birds is not only a good defence
against injury, but against weather, the feathering
of many land-birds, even, throwing off water almost
as well as that of most waterfowl ; but even among
wild birds, if they are living under easy conditions,
as with birds in London, one may observe a strong
tendency to degeneration in plumage in some cases.
Sparrows with very faulty plumage and broken
tails are common in our town parks nowadays ; I
have also seen at least two Moorhens with quills
broken off short, and several Black-headed Gulls
whose plumage was not properly waterproof.

Rigorous climatic conditions would of course
eliminate such birds, to say nothing of enemies ;
but when birds definitely make beasts of themselves
by losing the power of flight and running about on
the ground, the state of the plumage does not seem to
matter, and practically all such birds have degenerate
loose-webbed plumage, the precise degree of de-
generacy corresponding pretty closely to the degree
of degenerate deviation from the normal bird type ;
thus, the plumage is most degenerate in the Cas-
sowaries and Emus, which have the most aborted
wings, less so in the Ostrich, and still less in the
Rheas, in which the wings are almost like those of
normal birds, although soft-quilled. The flightless
Rails and Parrot show much less marked deviation,

302 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

but the tail is distinctly affected, and it will be
noticed that defective quill- and tail-growth is
quite common among domestic birds, as well as
among the above-noted Cockneyfied wild ones.

Very perfect weather-resisting devices are to be
found, on the other hand, not only in the down
underclothing of waterfowl, but in the curious
cleansing and water-proofing powder to be found
in the plumage of so many different groups, notably
in Herons, Pigeons, and Cockatoos, and in the great
bald Carrion- Storks like the Adjutant. Although,
as will be seen, some of these birds are waders, none
are habitual swimmers, and none are such vigor-
ous bathers as most birds, the Cockatoos apparently
only bathing in showers of rain.

Powder-dusted plumage is always very close,
and as it cleans itself, may be looked on as the
perfection of feathering, although the actual powder
is said to be produced by the disintegration of
individual feathers during growth, these " pulvi-
plumes " occurring either scattered, as in Cocka-
toos, or aggregated in patches, as in Herons.
Finally, it will be noticed that whenever plumage
is not directly concerned with promoting flight or
giving cover from the elements, it has a strong
tendency to become loose and degenerate in
structure, as in the Peacock's train and many Para-
dise-birds' plumes, as well as in the Ratite birds
above referred to.

CHAPTER XII

Special instincts of birds — The play of young birds and of adults
— Bower-builders and their peculiarities — Ornamentation of
nests — The instinct for food-storage in some forms— The
practice of piracy — Toilet and bed-time habits.

IT is in the study of certain special and sparse-
distributed instincts of birds that their mental and
moral similarity to ourselves often comes out best,
-and though in Europe we are not as well off for
birds with habits of striking interest as are some
of the other continents, there is yet now and
again a point of much sympathetic interest to be
gleaned from the study of our species.

Playfulness for instance is well developed in some
European birds ; the young of the Redpoll bred in
an aviary have been described as playing about like
kittens, just as I have seen young aviary-bred
Budgerigars do. Not only do young ducks of
various species play, but I have seen full-grown and
full-plumaged drakes do so, a favourite trick with
Mallard being to fly for a few feet just above the
water and then close the wings and dive headlong
into it — exactly the, manoeuvre the young but
fledged Gannet performs in practising its trade,
judging from some they had at the Zoo some time
ago.

303

304 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

I have even seen practical jokes played by a
Sheldrake and by a Pigeon ; in the former case
the bird, a pinioned one in Ravenscourt Park,
London, was being chased by a spiteful Swan, and
took long dives to avoid it, the enemy vindictively
plunging head and neck under the surface to
observe its course ; at first I pitied the duck,
thinking it was a new arrival and afraid to come
ashore near the spectators, but when it tired of
the sport it did so, standing and pluming itself
with such nonchalance that it had obviously only
been amusing itself at the Swan's expense.

The case of the Pigeon was even more remarkable ;
some very small boys in a narrow back-street were
chasing a young street-Pigeon which kept flying
hither and thither for a few yards only at a time.
I was considering whether I ought to stop them, or
let one catch it to take home for a pie — as they
were not well-to-do youngsters — when, to my
surprise, as it alighted not far from me, I saw it was
not panting or exhausted, and soon after it flew
up on to a high roof, showing as plainly as possible
that it, as well as the boys, had been enjoying the
game.

I have already alluded to the practical joke of
a Carrion-Hawk on an Eagle, and every one knows
the inveterate propensity for such jokes in birds
of the Crow and Parrot tribes, the last-named birds
being particularly apt to use their acquired gifts
of speech in this way; every one has heard of a
Parrot who calls the dog and then tells it to " go

THE MOCKING-BIRD'S JOKES 305

and lie down" or in some other way makes sport
of the confiding canine. The Mocking-bird also
appears to be a bird of much malicious humour ;
at any rate Colonel Roosevelt tells of one which
made a point of pecking a quiet old dog's tail
whenever he dared to raise it above the horizontal ;
and I have seen one in the London Zoo which, in
the course of a few minutes, mocked the notes
of a Bulbul (Pycnonotus) much to that bird's appar-
ent annoyance, chased another smaller bird about
the aviary till it clung to the wires panting, then
left it and proceeded with much stealth to steal a
stick from a pair of silly Pigeons which were making
a futile attempt to nest on the grass-plot in the
centre of the aviary. Among other groups than
Passerines, Cockatoos, Lories, and Cranes are remark-
able for their playfulness, which seems never to
leave them at any age.

Pigeons, being clumsy and harmless birds, come
in for a good deal of attention from practical
jokers in feathers ; I have seen a Peregrine Falcon
which haunted the Calcutta Museum buildings in
winter amusing himself by swooping down on some
tame ones and then " throwing up " at the last
moment, for he had a truce with his neighbours
and did not kill on the premises ; and, at the other
extreme, one may often see them in London chased
on the wing by the mischievous Sparrow, and
putting on great pace and some most active twisting
to escape the attack in the rear threatened by the
impudent little wretch. I have seen the Sparrow
20

3o6 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

play the same game on the Collared Doves loose at
the Zoo, on the Starling, and even once on the
wild Duck. Except for practical jokes of this kind,
I have not seen the Sparrow play, or fly for amuse-
ment ; in fact, Passerine birds, except the Crow
tribe, though so light and active, seem seldom to
fly for sport, though many sing in the air besides
the Skylark.

Sportive flights, however, are common in birds
of other groups, and merge imperceptibly into
courting displays ; even the slow, greedy Wood-
Pigeon towers up and sails down in the courting
ecstasy, and the more active and cheerful common
Pigeon is very fond at all times of gliding for some
distance with upward-slanting wings in true Eagle
fashion, an action which the Pouter among domestic
breeds indulges in in exaggerated fashion, being a
Pigeon which carries out all Pigeon peculiarities to
extremes.

Jackdaws soar up in pairs in true raptorial fashion
in the spring, and Rooks go in for all sorts of aerial
antics before changes of weather, while I have
seen both the Calcutta House-Crow and Carrion-
Crow in London play a game very like " I'm king
of the castle," in the former case on our lightning-
conductors on the Indian Museum and in the
latter on the weather-vane on a Regent's Park
church. The Indian Crow also likes swooping
down on Dabchicks, evidently being amused to see
them dive, for he has far too much sense to think
he can possibly catch them.

TOURNAMENTS AND BALLS 307

The play of adult birds leads naturally to their
" balls " and tournaments, which, though un-
doubtedly connected with matrimonial arrange-
ments, have yet very much the character of assem-
blages for amusement ; in many cases, as in
Blackcock dances, a great amount of fighting goes
on with little real damage, although the more
solitary Capercailzie really mauls his opponent
savagely. The fights of Ruffs, also, do no more
harm than a glove-fight, and although Peafowl and
Mandarin Ducks, judging from their habits in
captivity, like to assemble for display, there seems
to be little real fighting among them ; in the case
of the " beauty shows " of the latter, which I
have often observed in the evening at the Zoo, it
always seemed to me that the birds were all paired
already, and came together — on land, be it noted —
night after night simply for the fun of the thing,
although the ducks did their best to incite the
drakes to hustle each other.

It seems as if there is a tendency in highly
evolved species, however courageous, to leave off
fighting and concentrate on display, and in the
well-known case of the Bower-birds of Australasia
(Ptilonorbynckina) the play-place is actually laid
out and in many cases decorated by the birds. It
is to be noted that these extraordinary developments
of bird instinct have occurred in a continent where
man was, till we developed it, rare and at a low
level, which, taken into consideration along with
the human attributes so often noticeable in the

308 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

Penguins, which usually live where there are no
men at all, looks as if, in the absence of human
civilization, and the presence of easy means of
living, the birds do their best to become civilized
themselves.

There are several gradations in this instinct of
bower-building, the simplest form of it being seen
in the Tooth-billed Bower-bird (Sceno'pceus denti-
rostris) which simply carpets a patch of ground with
large green leaves, and the most elaborate that of
Newton's Bower- bird (Prionodura newtoniana), which
builds an extraordinary avenue of sticks, higher on
one side than the other, which it decorates with
white flowers only; the placing of these flowers
is the prerogative of the old cocks, which are
often brought to blows by the action of one in
removing a decoration which another has set up,
while the hens and young birds simply look on and
applaud. The smaller and simpler avenues of the
Satin Bower-bird (Ptilonorbynchus holosericeus) and
of the Spotted Bower-bird (Chlamydodera maculata)
have long been well known, and that of the former
used usually to be on view at the Zoo under the
old management.

The Satin-bird decorates with everything it can
get, with a preference, as remarked previously in
this book, for blue ; the Spotted Bower-bird has a
special preference for bones and shells, and its
bower looks like a badly-arranged local museum.
The Gardener-birds (Amblyornis) build structures
like little huts, with a sort of garden outside, in

PROVIDENT INSTINCTS 309

the case of one species decorated with moss and
picked flowers and shoots, and in that of the other
with sticks and black beetles and berries. Bower-birds
will visit lonely huts, at times, to steal objects,
recalling the well-known propensity of their rela-
tions the Crows, which hoard both trinkets and
food.

The instinct of food-storage, important as it is,
has been developed in but a few birds, chiefly
Passerines, and it is especially noticeable in the
Crow tribe, though one does not often get a chance
of observing it in wild birds. It is, however,
particularly well known in the Jays, which, feeding
so much on such non-perishable food as acorns,
have every encouragement to develop the habit.
Tits also store food, the Cole-Tit being particularly
assiduous, when fed at a bird-table, in carrying off
bits and coming back quickly for a fresh supply.
The Nuthatch has the food-storage instinct well
developed, and a caged pair I had not only stored
sunflower-seed in the chinks of the back of their
large cage, but even live harvest-men-spiders or
daddy-long-legs, without even taking the trouble
to kill the unfortunate arachnids, but jamming
them in ruthlessly and leaving them to kick.

Shrikes, also, are suspected of impaling their
prey alive in many cases ; the habit of doing so,
which seems to be far better developed in the
northern than in Indian species, is no doubt a
form of food-storage, for they are quite capable
of holding their food in their foot like Hawks, and

3io BIRD BEHAVIOUR

do not really need to fix it up in order to tear it.
I once saw a Drongo- Shrike, a Bhimraj or Great
Racket-tailed Drongo (Dissemurus paradiseus), grip
and scalp a gecko-lizard I gave him alive, thinking
he would kill it more quickly and mercifully than
I could, whistling meanwhile with horrid pleasure.
Needless to say, I did not give him any more live
lizards.

Similar cat-like cruelty has been observed by
Darwin in the case of a Cormorant, which amused
itself by letting go a captured fish and catching it
again, and by Buller in the case of a New Zealand
Hawk (Hieracidea) which carried up two mice,
one in each foot, and dropped them to catch them
again, till he lost one, and decided to end the
misery of the other by eating it. Cruel as it is,
this habit is particularly interesting, as there were
no mice in New Zealand to play with before we
came, though no doubt the young of the Maori
rat and of the native Quail (Coturnix nov<s-zea-
landia) had to put up with similar maltreatment
before the white man and the mice appeared.

The Carrion-Hawks of South America, so Crow-
like in their ways, develop the storage habit in
captivity at any rate, for I have seen both the
Caracara and Forster's Milvago (Ibycter australis),
the "Jack- Rook " of the Falklands, store away food
at the Zoo. Owls are very great at keeping larders,
and often accumulate quite a quantity of prey in
their nesting-places, which, unlike most birds, they
use as true homes, not merely as nurseries. Among

*&&*'

Ife-

NEWTON S BOWER-BIRD.

Newton's Bower-bird is brown and yellow in plumage, and about the size of a Blackbird,
which makes the huge dimensions of the bower more remarkable.

SNAKES' OLD CLOTHES USED 311

Woodpeckers, the American species Melanerpes
formicivorus stores acorns in holes bored in tree-
trunks, and even in telegraph-poles.

Parrots are usually not only non-provident, but,
like monkeys, wantonly wasteful, which wastefulness,
I am inclined to suspect, is one reason why they
are so rare outside the tropics, with this suicidal
tendency to squander their supplies ; so the case
of a Grey Parrot communicated to me by Mr. W.
Elcome, a resident in my neighbourhood, is par-
ticularly interesting — his bird at meals asks for
food, and drops it, till it sees it can get no more, and
then proceeds to eat what it has begged for.

Rather reminiscent of the habits of both Bower-
birds and Shrikes is the trick which some birds
have of lining, and possibly, in their own opinion,
ornamenting, their nests with curious objects of
animal origin, the most conspicuous cases being of
those birds which insist on using a snake's slough
for this purpose, such as the Great-crested Fly-
catcher (Myiarchus crinitus), one of the American
Tyrants, and the Rufous Warbler (Aedon galactotes)
of Europe ; in India the black Robins (Thamnobia)
and that burrowing Starling, the Bank Mynah
(Acridotheres ginginianus) also have this curious
selective habit. All the birds with this liking for
snakes' old clothes breed in holes, and it has been
suggested that the slough is used to terrify intrusive
lizards, which are no friends to eggs and young
birds, and are themselves much preyed upon by
snakes.

312 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

Among quaint bird customs, a very widespread
and reprehensible one is that of piracy, the Frigate-
birds and Skua Gulls, which live largely on what
they frighten out of other birds, being the acknow-
ledged professional exponents thereof, while many
birds, both on land and sea, attempt it in an amateur
way. Eagles are notorious highwaymen as well as
pirates, for though the malpractices of the American
" Bird of Freedom " on the Osprey are most
notorious, the inland Eagles are every whit as bad
where Hawks are concerned, as is well known to
Eastern falconers ; Prince Mirza Mohammed, in
his admirable treatise on Hawking, translated by
Colonel Phillott, advises falconers to go out for
their sport early in the day, because Eagles do not
begin to soar and look out for plunder till the sun
is high. Gulls in different parts of the world rob
Lapwings and Oyster-catchers, and surface-feeding
Ducks like Wigeon will sponge both on diving
Ducks and on wild Swans, their own powers of
exploiting the bottom being limited as a rule to
depths of a few inches.

Kingfishers may both rob and be robbed ; I
have seen a White-breasted Kingfisher (Halcyon
smyrnensis) in India — a very poor fisherman — rob
a Dabchick once, and evidently meditate the act
oftener, and Mr. D. Dewar has seen another Indian
Kingfisher, the Pied, Ceryle varia, badly badgered
by a River-Tern (Sterna seena), which wanted a
frog it had caught.

The Sparrow, as one might expect from his

THE ORDER OF THE BATH 313

hooligan instincts, is a thorough petty pirate ;
Americans complain that he robs the fine Thrush
they call a Robin (Turdus migratorius) of its earth-
worms, and I saw only last year the same trick
played on a Starling on a little London grass-plot.
The curious part of the business is that one never
sees a Sparrow trying to catch worms itself, and
also in the case I saw, the want of resentment in
the Starling, usually a plucky bird ; but it is notice-
able that with birds, as with ourselves, there is a
general tendency to be deplorably patient under
imposition.

Although other animals besides birds assiduously
clean themselves, as one may see with flies and
cats, birds have some toilet customs peculiarly their
own. Of these washing in water is undoubtedly
the chief, for though beasts and reptiles may
wallow, they do not wash deliberately as birds do.
Bathing, however, is not universal among birds ;
some preferring to roll in dust and throw it over
themselves, like the common Fowl, whose dry-
cleaning habit is shared by all the Game-birds, as
also by the Cariama and the Bustards and Sand-
Grouse. Among the great runners, also, though
the Emu and Ostrich wash, the Rhea dusts, picking
up and throwing the dust over itself with its bill.
I have also seen a Red-billed Hornbill (Tockus
erytbrorhynchus) in the Zoo dusting, but I do not
know if it bathes as well, as some other Hornbills
do.

Bathing and dusting are seldom practised by

BIRD BEHAVIOUR

the same bird, but the Sparrow, as is well known,
does both, and I have also seen both habits in the
Green Bee- eater of India (Merops viridis), the
Blue Roller of the same country (Coracias indica),
and the South American Seed-Snipe (Tbinocorys
rumicivorus). Larks dust, but also bathe in the
.rain, lying down in it with outspread wings, and
the Wren is said to dust — I do not know if it bathes.
Many fine flyers take their dip on the wing, as
every one has seen with the Swallow; the Bee-
eater above mentioned, the Roller, and the Drongo
or King- Crow (Dicrurus ater) also bathe in this
way. So do Humming-birds and Kingfishers, the
land- feeding species of the latter family, as well as
the fishing kinds, plunging for a bath. All the
above birds use their feet but little, and take their
food by the use of their wings, even if by short
swoops ; but among birds which are active on their
feet I have seen bathing by a plunge practised by
the Silvery crowned Friar-bird (Philemon argan-
ticeps) — a very agile acrobat in the air, in spite of
short wings, however — and I have seen a Wood-
Pigeon in St. James's Park on a hot day pitch on
water out of its depth, and have a splash or two
before flying out, and this habit seems to be well
established both in this bird and the House- Pig eon.
The latter exemplified to me the passion of birds
for bathing in a very striking way one cold winter's
day at Charing Cross. The station-yard cobbles
were glazed with ice, but on them a score of Pigeons
flapped and wallowed in the cold shower thrown

UNSANITARY DRINKING 315

on them by a cabby, who had got his finger on a
fountain- jet and was making it spirt. Many must
have seen similar Spartan behaviour, on the part
of many of our small garden birds in winter, such
as the Robin.

One curious thing about birds' bathing is that
they are much more particular about their bathing
water than that which they use as a beverage.
They will drink any dirty water, but much prefer
that which is clean to bathe in ; even Ducks will
not go into a pond which has become excessively
foul, and if there is any difficulty about their water
supply it is much better to give them merely a
large tin bath filled afresh every day than to dig
out a pond, if this must become stagnant owing
to want of facilities for renewing the water. It
is a similar feeling, no doubt, which makes sea-
birds resort to fresh water for bathing wherever
possible ; even the Johnny Penguins (Pygoscelis
taniata) in South Georgia have been found to
resort to a fresh- water lake for fresh- water bathing.
In fact, they liked the pond so much that, according
to the observer who records the habit, they went
there to die, many dead specimens being visible
in the clear depths.

It is a familiar observation that water rolls off a
Duck's back, and as a matter of fact, the clothing
of waterfowl is generally waterproof, as one would
expect, though not in the Magpie-Goose or in
Cormorants, whose habit of standing with expanded
wings to dry themselves after fishing is well known.

316 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

Any water-bird also, when kept away from water
for a time, loses the waterproof property in its
plumage, this being most marked in the most
aquatic kinds such as Grebes and Petrels ; nor is
the plumage of dead birds waterproof. This being
so, it is difficult to see how the waterproofing
efficacy of the oil-gland over the tail, the only
important skin-gland birds possess, comes in, al-
though it is admittedly especially well developed
in waterfowl, and these may be seen repeatedly
rubbing their heads on it after bathing and when
pluming themselves.

Another puzzle in the toilet arrangements of
birds is the comb-like edge on the inner side of
the third claw which some birds, such as Nightjars,
Barn-Owls, Herons, Grebes, and Cormorants, pos-
sess ; it is true that birds always scratch themselves
with this claw, though it is not the nearest to the
head, that place being held by the second toe or
inner front one (the hind toe being the first), nor,
in the case of Grebes and Cormorants, is it the
longest. But though this argues that the comb-
edge where it exists has some function, it does
not explain why it is so curiously distributed — one
could hardly have two birds more dissimilar in
habits than a Barn-Owl and a Dabchick, for in-
stance. In the Frigate-bird, which is very ver-
minous, the claw-comb appears to act as a vermin-
catcher, but a verminous condition does not seem to
be universal among comb-clawed birds by any means,
and is often found in others, such as the Starling.

THE RULES OF THE ROOST 317

The roosting -habits of birds display some interest-
ing variations. Generally in repose birds " tuck
their heads under their wings," as the popular
description of the action has it ; in reality the
bill or head rests between the basal joint of the
wing and the back, and is merely covered by the
adjacent shoulder-feathers. Some birds, however,
such as Owls and Penguins, very rarely assume this
position, and, as far as I have seen, Grebes and the
Ratite birds, with the exception of the Apteryx,
always keep the head to the front. Some birds
lie down when sleeping, such as the Game-birds,
the Cariama, and the Ratites, as well as many
waterfowl ; but others prefer to sleep standing
on one leg, such as Storks, Cranes, and Passerines.
Parrots and Owls rarely sit down, either by day or
night, and generally rest on both feet ; the diurnal
birds of prey also generally prefer a standing pose
at all times, with the exception of the American
Vultures, which sit down when at roost.

The hold upon the perch, among those birds
which roost aloft, is maintained automatically by
the flexure of the toes which results on the bending
of the hock- joint, so that no effort is required ;
but the grip must be very slight in those perching
birds in which the hind toe is poorly developed,
as in the perching species of Ducks and in the
Cariama, which also has very short front toes. An
even more remarkable percher is a Demerara
Tinamou which, according to Waterton, has the
custom, unique, apparently, in its family, of sleeping

318 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

in trees. Its short front and rudimentary hind
toes are most ill-adapted for such a habit, and
Waterton considered it maintained its position by
the rough scales at the back of the shank.

Some birds roost by hanging themselves up,
either suspended absolutely head- downwards like
bats, which is done only by the little Bat-Parrots
(Loriculus), or by clinging to some support head-
upwards, but suspended against it by the claws,
like Woodpeckers, Colies or Mouse-birds, and some
at any rate of the Swifts. Swifts of the most
typical kinds, however, like ours and the Indian
and African House-Swift (Cypselus affinis), roost in
their nests, a habit rare among birds, but also
followed by Martins, Tits, Owls, Petrels, and the
common Pigeon and Wren. In the case of the
latter, many birds will crowd into one nest or hole
in winter, and even then often die in a hard frost.

CHAPTER XIII

Special physiological peculiarities of birds — Longevity — Tempera-
ture of body — Change of colour in bare skin of some, such as
Turkey — The phenomena of the moult — Gradual change in
colour of bill and feet according to age and sex or season
— Changes in iris colour — Beak-sheath shedding as in Puffin.

BIRDS are by far the most perfect of living machines
that evolution has as yet produced, for although
they do not nearly equal reptiles in longevity, they
live much more intensely and exhibit incomparably
more activity, which must fairly be taken into
account. In length of life, however, they are
vastly superior to most of the mammals, though,
as in so many other cases, length or shortness of
life is a group-character, and in birds of the same
group is related in many cases to the size of the
species. The evidence goes to show that the
longest-lived birds are the larger species of Parrots,
birds of prey, and waterfowl, but it must be
remembered that the data are necessarily obtained
from birds in captivity or domestication, and that
large species are generally easier to keep and less
liable to accidents than small ones.

But there is no record of any small bird of the
above groups attaining even half the age that is
recorded, for instance, for the Lemon-crested

319

320 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

Cockatoo, a specimen of which, known to be
ninety-six years of age, was exhibited at a bird-
show at the Horticultural Hall in London in 1913,
while another has recently died in Australia at the
record age of a hundred and nineteen; or of the
well-known London Swan, " Old Tom," killed by
accident at the age of seventy. The Game-birds
are not usually notorious for longevity, but some
years ago a record was published in ?he Field of a
Peacock killed by accident at ninety-six, and Lady
Warwick in recent years has possessed a white one
which, as recorded in Country Life, must have been
nearly a century old, since the oldest man on the
estate, it seems, said that his father, who died a
very old man, could remember knowing this bird
as an adult in his own boyhood.

There are no records of the Raven tending to
confirm the extreme length of days traditionally
attributed to it, no captive specimen having even
reached the three-score years and ten allotted to
man ; but the smaller Passerine birds are certainly
very long-lived for their size, the Canary commonly
living ten years and sometimes twenty, while a
tame cock-Sparrow of seventeen years old is re-
corded by Mr. Hudson in his " London Birds."
These celibate birds, however, very likely have their
lives unnaturally prolonged by never breeding ; and
a bird in captivity, in spite of the drawback of
want of exercise, has a chance of surviving many
years after its constitution has become too weak to
bear the violent exercise of escaping from Hawks

INFIRMITIES OF OLD AGE 321

and intermittent starvation, troubles which fall to
the lot of most birds in a state of nature.

Thus I knew for years an old hen Lapwing in
the London Zoo which died at the age of at least
fourteen ; but for years before her death, apart
from the fact that she had a stiff wing — no doubt
due to some accident — she was in a most unfit
state for survival in the wilds, since, a few weeks
after she had moulted, her quills regularly became
so worn that she would have been greatly handi-
capped in flight, and flight is the most important
survival-factor in this bird, its activity on the
wing being too much for the average Hawk.

Almost up to her death, however, she laid an
egg or two annually and sat on them, but these
never hatched, though as her mate was a Ruff,
the hybrid alliance may have accounted for this !
Mr. Meade- Waldo's classical pair of - Eagle-Owls,
both of which exceeded sixty years, also bred up
to within a few years of their death, and the long-
continued fertility of the Goose is familiar to poultry
keepers. The Duchess of Bedford, however, re-
corded in " British Birds " a Collared Dove which
at the age of thirty failed to fertilize its young mate's
eggs, so there we get an approximate limit to the
fertility of this species, which, by the way, is one
noted for longevity, in which it far surpasses the
Pigeon, a larger bird and kept as a rule under
more natural conditions. Among aviary Pheasants,
however, the small Golden and Amherst species do
not live nearly as long as the larger Silver Pheasant,

21

322 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

nor do the Mandarin and Carolina Ducks as a rule
equal the length of life of the Mallard, which is
itself less long-lived than the Muscovy.

Fowls are usually not allowed to live long, but I
have seen a hen which, I was told, was twelve years
old — she certainly looked it ; and I have also seen a
Bantam-cock of seven, which, though elderly-
looking, had sired chicks the year I made his acquaint-
ance. The historical game-cock who killed the
fox, also, was three years old at the time, and was
winning contests with his own kind at six years.
It would be interesting to know how long Hum-
ming-birds live, and Mr. Ezra's two specimens have
given us spme information ; at the time of writing
he had had them a year and a half, and they were
adults when received, so that at any rate these
birds are not short-lived like insects, as many
people seem to think they should be.

They do, however, resemble insects in becoming
torpid when exposed to cold, and those species
which range to Canada, Alaska, and Patagonia
presumably undergo this torpidity regularly every
night in spring and autumn ; Gould's pair of the
Ruby-throat (Trocbilus colubris) certainly did so
when on board ship in cold waters, but this may
have shortened their lives, as one died in the
Channel and the other on reaching London. Very
young birds, whether nestlings or chicks, also
become torpid when exposed to cold.

Generally speaking, the temperature of birds is
exceedingly high, and maintained under all cir-

CHANGE OF HUE AND FEATURE 323

cumstances, no bird being known to hibernate,
though many, especially Swallows, have had the
reputation of doing so. It has been suggested that
Petrels, dislodged in winter from their burrows by
a fall of rocks, etc., from a cliff, may have accounted
for this, and certainly Storm-Petrels could easily be
mistaken for Swallows ; and Pliny must have con-
founded Shearwaters with Swifts, since he says
that however far ships went from land, the Swifts
(Abodes) still flew around them, which exactly
applies to these Petrels.

The temperature of the Ratite birds is lower
than that of the ordinary types of the class, and
in association with this approach to the mammalia
it may be noted that these birds are less long-lived
than large birds in general, not reaching apparently
more than thirty years.

One peculiarity of birds to which little attention
has been paid is the change of colour or form, or
both, to be observed in the bare skin of some forms ;
it is most conspicuous and best known in the
Turkey, in which the caruncle over the beak
becomes, as every one has seen, enormously elon-
gated and hangs down on the neck, the throat-skin
meanwhile becoming loose and pendulous, while
the colour of the neck becomes red, with the face
bright blue and the crown bluish-white, the ordinary
colour of the naked parts being a dull light red or
livid. It is interesting to note that in the splendid
Honduras Turkey (M. ocellatd), in which the bare
parts are normally rich blue with yellow warts,

324 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

the colour of these does not change, and that
the neck-skin is but slightly relaxed, though the
beak-caruncle elongates, and there arises an almost
conical comb, crowned with warts, on the top of
the head. In the Green Jungle-cock the single
wattle is let down, and the face becomes red, on
excitement.

In the Common and Silver Pheasants the bare
skin of the face expands both above and below
when excitement supervenes, and the same pheno-
menon is seen in others, such as the blue-faced
Firebacks (Lophura), but there is here no colour-
change. On the other hand, colour-change may
occur without change of form of the naked parts ;
thus in the Caracara Hawk when courting, and
sometimes under other circumstances, the salmon-
pink cere and bare face become pale yellow ; and
the red face of the Bateleur Eagle (Helo tarsus
ecaudatus) becomes yellow, and its red feet flesh-
coloured, when feeding, the change beginning even
at the sight of food. Yet when showing off, which
this species, unlike other birds of prey, constantly
does, the face and feet become intensified in their
red colour.

In the Pileated Vulture (Neophron pileatus), on
the other hand, the sight of food makes the livid
bare parts of the head turn brilliant rose-pink. In
the Blue-and-yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna) and the
Cape Crowned Crane (Balearic a cbrysofelargus) the
chalky white bare face blushes % reddish on excite-
ment. Thus we may see among birds a facial

THE PELICAN'S HORNS 325

change under emotion very similar to our own, and
in some cases carried further, for our features at
least do not alter in shape ! The expansion of the
bare parts is said to be effected 07 the injection
of blood, but the pouches of the Adjutant and of
male Frigate-birds are air-inflated.

In some birds, as in the Comb-Duck (Sarcidi-
ornis melanonota) and Sheldrake, the male assumes
a permanent fleshy outgrowth on the bill during
the breeding season, which is much reduced at
other times. In the American White Pelican (Pele-
canus erytbrorhynchus) a horny excrescence grows
upon the bill during the breeding season, and is
afterwards shed; it has been said to be confined
to the male, but the hen of the pair in the Zoo
at the time of writing has grown one for years past.

The moult of the feathers has always attracted
attention ; in most birds it takes place once a
year, but in some, especially where there is a great
change of colour according to season, as in Ptarmi-
gans and the males of some Ducks, it occurs twice.
The quill-feathers, however, are only shed annually,
and generally in pairs, so that the bird's power of
fligh tis not importantly affected ; but in several
groups of water or marsh birds, which can take
refuge in water or on boggy land, all the quills are
cast together, so that the bird is flightless for some
weeks ; such groups are the Duck tribe (except
the Magpie-Goose), the Flamingoes, the Rails, the
Grebes, and the Cranes (except the Crowned Cranes
(Balearica)).

326 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

It is interesting to note that the terrestrial forms
of some of these families, the Cereopsis among
the Geese, and the Land- Rail and Wekas among
the Rails, nevertheless still keep up the wholesale
moult of their, presumably, marsh-living ancestors,
and that the Ratite birds do not cast all their quills
at once, though there is a strong tendency to
wholesale moulting whenever possible ; thus the
ornamental plumage of the Gold Pheasant and
Peacock is shed very rapidly, as are the great show-
quills of the Argus. The Penguins also moult
very quickly, throwing off their feathers in masses,
and as they do not go into the water till clean-
moulted, have to fast for a period of several
weeks.

The colour of the beak and sometimes the feet
changes in many cases according to season ; thus
the cock Chaffinch's bill is flesh-colour in winter,
blue-grey in summer ; and the Starling's beak
changes from black in winter to yellow in summer,
and its legs from dull brown to fleshy red. The
legs of the breeding Night-Heron (Nycticorax
griseus) also change from yellow to salmon at the
breeding season, and in some races of the Great
Egret (Herodias) the bill and face change, from
yellow, to black in the former and green in the
latter. Drakes when assuming the female-like
plumage they bear for a time after breeding may
or may not change the colour of their bills ; there
is no change in the Mallard or Pintail, but the
Gadwall and Shoveller assume the female colora-

CHANGING TINTS OF BILL 327

tion of the bill, while in the Red-crested Pochard
and Mandarin this change is variable, occurring in
some individuals and not in others.

The colour of beak and feet, etc., also changes
according to age ; this is very noticeable in the
bill of the cygnet of the common Swan, which
changes from black, through grey and lilac, to pink,
and finally to orange-red ; but the change from black
to red can also occur by the gradual invasion of the
black by the red, as in the beak of the young Zebra-
Finch (T&niopygia castanotis). In the young Gan-
net the beak changes from black to white, and the
green lines down the black shank and toes only
appear as maturity approaches. The legs and bill
both change from black to white with age in
the Indian Pied Mynah (Sturnopastor contra).
Changes in the iris are quite numerous in birds.
Usually a dark eye changes into a light one ; thus
the grey Parrot, when young, has a dark grey iris,
and the Ring-necked Parrakeet (Pal&ornis tor-
quatus) a dark brown one, both having the iris
white ultimately. But the reverse change may
occur, for in the Pheasant-tailed Ja$an£ (Hydro-
phasianus sinensis), the young birds generally have
yellow eyes, and the old ones dark brown ones. In
the Gold Pheasant the young cocks can be known
by their yellow instead of brown eyes long before
coming into colour. Indeed, generally speaking,
the change, due to age, in the beak, feet, and iris,
tends to antedate the change in plumage ; but
there are exceptions, as in the case of the male

328 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

Blackbird, which gets his black plumage long before
his bill turns yellow.

The iris, like the face and feet, may change colour
through emotion ; thus the red eye of a Pochard
drake has been seen to change to yellow, no doubt
through fear, while he was being handled. Besides
changing colour, the horny casing of beak and claws
may undergo actual shedding en masse, as distinct
from the ordinary gradual wearing. I have already
cited the case of the American White Pelican, and
may now draw attention to that of our Puffin
and of various nearly allied members of the Auk
family, in which more or less of the horny sheath of
the bill comes off in large pieces after the breeding
season, producing in the larger-beaked forms a
most remarkable change of appearance, for in the
Puffin the bill, shorn of its nuptial plating, is quite
ordinary in size and shape.

Among the Grouse, the Ptarmigans lose in
spring the exaggerated overgrowth of horn on the
claws which they acquired in autumn to fit them
for winter's snow-shovelling in search of browse ;
and the more ordinary Grouse such as Blackgame
and Capercailzie also shed the horny fringes to
the toes which served in winter to provide a kind
of snow-shoe. Even weapons are shed seasonally
in at least one instance, that of the Pheasant-
tailed Ja9an£, which loses its wing-spurs as well
as its long tail after the breeding season.

CHAPTER XIV

Abnormalities — Hybrids, their characteristics and power of repro-
duction or otherwise — Abnormal plumages, such as albinism
or melanism, temporary or permanent — Overgrowth of claws
and bill.

ABNORMALITIES, both of mating and of plumage and
structure, have not received the attention from
naturalists which they deserve, though from the
philosophic point of view they are often of extreme
interest. The few facts that are known about
hybrid birds, for instance, are often extremely
suggestive. Though generally intermediate in ap-
pearance, as is the case with the very well-known
hybrid between the Goldfinch and the Canary,
they often differ from both parents, special decora-
tions, for instance, being almost invariably eliminated
by the cross, unless common to both species. Thus
the hybrid between the Gold Pheasant and the
Fowl has neither the comb, wattles, or bending
sickle-feathers of the one parent, nor the crest
and extreme length of tail of the other, while the
colour is of an ordinary auburn or chestnut instead
of the rich and variegated hues of the original
birds.

This uniform chestnut hue turns up so fre-
quently in Pheasant crosses as to suggestjjiat the

329

330 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

original Pheasant was of this colour, though no
such species now exists ; and it is also common in
parts of the plumage in crosses among waterfowl.
Glossy purple is also a common colour where gloss
exists in the parents, although purple gloss is rare
in pure birds. In the cross between the common
red Jungle-Fowl and the green Javan bird, for
instance, the hybrid cock has a purple neck and
tail, both neck and tail being green in the Javan
species, while the tail is also green even in the red
bird. Similarly with regard to the appearance of
auburn, the breast of the hybrid Gold- and- Silver
Pheasant is of this colour, although one parent has
a scarlet and the other a blue-black breast.

In the hybrid of the Mallard and the Red-
crested Pochard both tendencies appear ; the
breast is fawn, quite unlike the chocolate of the
Mallard and the black of the other Duck, while
the head is of a metallic puce, a colour one would
never imagine to have been derived from the Mal-
lard's emerald-green and the Pochard's chestnut
and buff. It is obvious in such cases that the
colours are not blends of those of the parents, and
the inference would seem to be that chestnut or
rufous, and purple, were formerly commoner
colours among Ducks and Pheasants than they are
to-day; since among crosses of varieties of the
same species of domestic birds there is a strong
tendency to reversion to the original colour, Darwin
having got birds resembling the Rock-Pigeon and
the Jungle-Fowl by crossing different breeds of

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REVERSION IN HYBRIDS 331

Fowls and of Pigeons which were all devoid of the
ancestral colours, as related in his admirable but
rather neglected work, " Variation of Animals and
Plants under Domestication."

Now and then hybrids between species have
been produced showing an extraordinary likeness
to some species allied to, but distinct from, the
two forms concerned ; the classical instance of
this is that of the two Sheldrakes bred at the Zoo
many years ago between the little-known South
African Grey-headed Sheldrake (Gasarca cana),
which much resembles the Ruddy Sheldrake, and our
common Sheldrake ; these resembled the Australian
dark grey Sheldrake (Casarca tadornoides) far more
closely than either parent. These birds are to be
seen at the South Kensington Museum. At the
Zoo lately, also, was a cock Pheasant presented by
Mrs. Johnstone, the first importer of the Formosan
black Mikado Pheasant (Calopbasis mikado), and
bred between that bird and the copper- and- white
Elliot's Pheasant (Phasianus ellioti) of China,
which, except for rather different breadth in the
bars on the tail, was identical in plumage with
a third species, Mrs. Hume's Pheasant (P. humite)
of Manipur ; a form far less specialized in coloration
than either of the other two, and very likely ancestral
to both, just as the dark grey Australian Sheldrake
no doubt represents an ancestral form of these
Ducks, generally so strikingly and showily coloured.
Rarely does a hybrid between distinct species
follow almost exclusively one parent in coloration.

332 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

but this is the case with the hybrid between Ruddy
Sheldrake and Egyptian Goose (Chenalofex &gyp-
tiaca), which favours the former ; between the Pope
Cardinal-Finch (Paroaria dominicana) and Red-
crested Cardinal (P. cucullata), which follows the
latter ; and with hybrids between domestic Fowls
and other birds, such as the Pheasant, Guinea- Fowl,
and Peacock, in all of which the coloration is purely
that of a Fowl or nearly so, so far as I have seen.
Specimens may be studied at South Kensington.

When the colour is thus dominant, however, the
shape and size incline more to that of the recessive
parent ; thus, the very rare Peacock-Fowl hybrid
shown recently at the Zoo was a most obvious
Peacock in size and general shape, though in ac-
cordance with the general rule of the " cancelling
out " of different decorations, it never developed
train or crest any more than comb, hackles, or
wattle. The Cardinal hybrid had the short head-
feathering of the Pope, not the long peak-crest of
the other parent.

When two species of Ducks, one with an undress
plumage in the drake and the other without, are
crossed, the undress is dominant and such a phase
occurs in the hybrid, as is well seen in that be-
tween the Rosy- billed Pochard (Metopiana pepo-
saca), which always retains masculine plumage, and
the Red-crested Pochard with its very distinct
eclipse. I note, however, that in a hybrid between
the Red and Green Jungle-Fowls now in the Zoo
there is no " undress " neck- feathering assumed.

DOMINANCE IN HABITS 333

in which the hybrid follows the Javan, the Red
Jungle-Fowl assuming after breeding a neck-wear
of short black feathers instead of long red hackles,
though this change can seldom be traced in the tame
Fowl, which generally " skips " this undress phase.

Among the Ducks, where habit may vary so
much, we have a chance of comparing the habits
of hybrids with that of the parents ; the diving-
habit would appear to be recessive, as hybrids bred
by M. Rogeron between a Pochard drake and a
Gadwall-Mallard hybrid duck were not only non-
divers, but more terrestrial than ordinary Ducks,
though heavily built ; and of several hybrids between
surface-feeders and divers I have myself seen I
never saw one dive, though it must be remembered
that some of the true diving- ducks, the Red-
crested Pochard for instance, seldom dive in captivity
even on large ponds ; while on small ponds much
more specialized diving-birds show a tendency to
become abnormal and avoid diving and often
even swimming ; thus, the King Penguin last at
the Zoo .would not enter water.

The perching habit, in a duck bred between a
percher and a non-percher, appears to be dominant ;
at any rate, several hybrids between common and
Muscovy Ducks I had in Calcutta took to perching,
though at first awkwardly, sitting along the bough
lengthways ; they improved later, however, and
assumed the normal transverse position, and roosted
in the tree, showing a stronger proclivity for perch-
ing than the pure Muscovy, though this is a tree-

334 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

duck when wild, and half-wild ones bred at the Zoo
perched freely if left unpinioned. As, however,
the ancestor of the Ducks was a percher — if the
Magpie-Goose really represents it — this would again
be a case of reversion. The greater readiness to
take wing in these Muscovy-Mallard hybrids, which
has long been well known, as they have often been
shot in a wild state, is undoubtedly a reversionary
trait, the common Duck being usually flightless and
the tame Muscovy very lazy, though able to fly.

Generally speaking, hybrids between remote
species, placed universally in different genera, such
as most of those of which I have been speaking, are
inclined to be wild and spiteful, and are almost
universally sterile ; so much so, that one cannot
persuade bird-fanciers that the Goldfinch-Canary
" mule " can ever breed. A few years ago, however,
a bird was exhibited at a Horticultural Hall bird
show which purported to be a cross between a
Goldfinch-Canary and a true Goldfinch, and as it
looked exactly what one would expect such a bird
to be like, and most certainly not like the ordinary
first cross or like any casual variation of the Gold-
finch, I am inclined to accept its authenticity;
especially as M. Suchetet, in his book on wild
hybrids in birds, mentions breeding on one occasion
from the hybrid between the domestic Dove and
Pigeon, mated back to a Dove, though this cross
is also usually quite sterile.

Hybrids between closely allied species, such as the
Amherst and Golden Pheasants, and Mallard and

MULTIPLE HYBRIDITY 335

Pintail Ducks, are normal or nearly so in behaviour
and reproductive power ; when bred inter se the
second generation do not segregate again into the
original forms or break up into numerous varieties,
as do the offspring of crossed domestic breeds, but
remain nearly or quite true to type, so far as the
few experiments yet made give us information.

The blood of several species can be blended into
one hybrid, as in the case of the triple-crossed
Ducks mentioned above, and Mr. J. L. Bonhote has
crossed as many as five species, but all nearly allied ;
M. Rogeron's hybrids of the Gadwall-Mallard with
the Pochard were sterile. They were, by the way,
true to type, and showed rufous in parts of the
plumage where no such colour was found in the
parents, another instance of reversion to this colour.

Recently there was bred at Kew a brood of
hybrids between a Chilian Yellow-billed Teal drake
paired to a duck bred between a Chilian Wigeon
(Mareca sibilatrix) on the one hand, and a hybrid
between the Madagascar Meller's Duck (Anas
melleri) and the African Yellow-billed (A. undulata) ;
the result of this mixture being very fairly uniform
and exhibiting far more rufous than any of the
parents, and a blackish cap and whitish face and
throat also found in none of these, and on the
whole displaying a reminiscence of an Australasian
Tree-Duck (Dendrocycna vagans) ; here again is a
probable case of reversion, the Tree-Ducks being
a primitive type, un-duck-like in gait, shape, flight,
and note, though typical in bilL

336 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

Hybrids have generally to be studied in captivity,
where they are so freely produced that in many
cases a bird is practically as likely to breed with an
ally as with its own species, the reason for which
has been suggested at the close of Chapter VIII,
as dependent on personal preference ; but in a
wild state they are always, with one exception,
very rare, even among the Ducks, in which group
they occur more frequently than in any other birds,
though in the Goose and Swan section of the same
family unknown.

Thus, in India, Hume in all his many years of
wild- fowling and collecting, and in spite of his nume-
rous correspondents, apparently never came across a
specimen, and indeed only one undoubted one to my
knowledge has ever turned up there, recorded by
Mr. W. L. Sclater a few years before I went out ;
this was between Mallard and Gadwall, but in
general coloration more recalled a Teal, which must
make one careful about assigning ancestral reversion
to hybrids which resemble species not concerned, for
there is no reason to suppose the Teal to have been
ancestral to Mallard and Gadwall, unless the
latter has much degenerated in colour. I am there-
fore inclined to agree with M. Suchetet, that the
comparative frequency of wild-fowl hybrids in
Europe is due to the amount of shooting that
goes on, and to the practice of keeping waterfowl
pinioned, both causes leading to birds being de-
prived of the power of flight, and so unnaturally
isolated in a territory they would not naturally

FATE OF THE HALF-CASTE 337

inhabit in the breeding-season, and thus being
brought into contact with aliens.

The only common wild hybrid is the apparently
sterile one between two very distinct species of
Grouse, the Capercailzie and Blackcock, which is
so well known on the Continent as to have a tech-
nical name, Rakkelhane, in Scandinavia. Many
examples are to be seen in museums, and the cock
hybrid is killed down by sportsmen as vermin,
as it disturbs the pure-bred birds at their tourna-
ments ; the hens are inconspicuous and seldom
noticed.

As to the common crosses of all grades between
such birds as only or hardly differ except in colour,
such as the Hooded Carrion-Crow crosses and
others above-mentioned, I cannot consider them
hybrids at all; as the birds, who ought to know
their own nationality best, make no caste- distinc-
tions on colour, I cannot see why naturalists should
presume to do so.

Abnormalities in coloration which appear inde-
pendently of crossing are often very interesting,
whether they occur in tame, captive, or wild birds ;
in the last case the frequent whiteness or pied varie-
gation of the Blackbird is of ancient notoriety, for
Aristotle mentions white Blackbirds (which he
thought were of a distinct species), and Varro
speaks of their being shown publicly in Rome, along
with Parrots, wild Fowls (probably Blackgame) and
other curiosities. In the Faroes, a pied variety of
the Raven used to occur frequently, but has now be-

22

338 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

come extinct with the killing off of the whole stock.
One can understand how such a variety can recur,
from the account given by a contributor to Wright's
" Poultry Book " of the constant recurrence of a
few silver-grey ganders in his strain of the ordinary
dark-grey Toulouse Geese, after he had once used a
gander of that colour.

Albinistic variation in birds is commoner in
New Zealand than anywhere else, and it is interest-
ing to note that it affects the introduced British
birds as well as the native species, no doubt because
in both cases in-breeding has followed the intro-
duction, natural or artificial, of but a small stock ;
I have noticed that the plumage of most native
New Zealand birds is extraordinarily soft and fluffy,
no doubt another form of degeneration, as soft
loose plumage is one of the surest signs of degeneracy
in captive or domesticated birds. Albinism is gene-
rally replaced by lutinism, or yellow coloration, in
green birds, whether pure green or olive-green;
thus we are familiar with the yellow variety of the
Canary, originally an olive-green bird, and in India
a yellow variety of the pure green Ring-necked
Parrakeet not unfrequently occurs. Such Parrakeets
retain the red beak, and, if males, the red neck- ring ;
red having a curious tendency to persist in varieties
otherwise abnormally coloured.

Melanism or abnormal blackness is usually rarer
than albinism, but much commoner in birds of
prey — 'except Owls. It must be remembered that
albinos and lutinos often have pink eyes, and there-

PARROT ABNORMALITIES 339

fore no doubt, like human beings similarly afflicted,
probably have bad sight, so that they are unfitted to
survive in a state of nature. The white Australian
Hawk (Astur novce-hollandice) with its black-pupilled
red eyes, thrives well enough, incidentally showing
that there is no need for a bird of prey to resemble
its surroundings for aggressive purposes.

Particularly interesting are the cases in which a
bird varies into a different style of plumage than
the black, pied, white, yellow, or so forth ; thus,
the brown Kaka Parrot (Nestor meridionalis) of
New Zealand often produces a more or less red
variety in nature; and in captivity I have seen a
specimen of the very rare Derbian Parrakeet (Pala-
ornis derbianus) at the Zoo become a different bird
altogether, its pinkish breast turning green like
the back, and its grey cap black like the throat, so
that any one would have called it a distinct species,
while its cage-mate remained unaffected. It after-
wards, however, returned to its original colour, and
this is always liable to happen with abnormally
plumaged birds, unless they are pink-eyed albinos
or lutinos, in which the abnormal plumage is per-
manent, so far as I know.

And as a bird may get more or less white with
age, in captivity, as sometimes happens with the
Linnet and usually with black breeds of the common
Duck, it does not need Darwin's far-fetched theory
about sexual selection and changes of taste in the
females to account for the peculiar case of the Reef-
Herons (Demiegretta) in which the birds should be

340 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

grey, but often are white when young, white when
adult, or white all through life. These Herons are
simply liable to temporary or permanent albinism,
and in this connection it may be noted that there are
more all-white species among the Herons than in any
other group of birds ; incidentally also, the white
ones are just those which favour warm climates,
where they are most conspicuous, like the white
Cockatoos amongst the Parrots. Among Cockatoos
and Herons, grey and black are also common
colours, and all poultry-breeders know there is a
close affinity between grey, black, and white, so that
here laws of heredity have evidently determined
the colour, quite irrespective of assimilation to sur-
roundings.

The reversion of the captive cock Linnet to the
young plumage in captivity is of interest in this
connection, as also the change of the red to yellow
in the males of some allied Finches, such as the
Crossbill and Rose-Finch (Carfodacus erytbrinus) ;
in old birds this seems to happen in the wild state,
and very old cock Linnets when wild seem to be-
come yellow where they should be red. The fading
of the red in both sexes of the captive Scarlet Ibis
(Eudocimus ruler) seems to be a matter of some de-
fect in the food ; it cannot be due to climate, as
this change occurred in the Calcutta Zoo, though
our old cock always put forth some scarlet splashes
in spring. Hen birds, being more delicate, might
be expected to feel the effects of captivity more
than cocks ; I noticed recently the hen of the Zoo

THE EMANCIPATED HEN 341

pair of American White Pelicans had assumed the
young plumage in the shape of brown markings on
the wing-coverts.

The occasional assumption of male plumage by
hen birds has generally been observed in birds in
captivity, being most common in the Golden
Pheasant ; it is of interest that only the plumage
changes, not the eye-colour. In the common Fowl
the hen, though she may get spurs even when young,
never develops the cock's large comb and wattles
even when she becomes fully cock-feathered.

Overgrowth of claws and beak is very rare except
in captive birds — in fact, I do not know any case
of overgrowth of claws in a wild bird ; such an
accident, if it occurred, would so soon lead to a
fatal entanglement or handicap in activity. In
tame birds it is certainly not due to absence of
friction in the case of the claws, for these will
overgrow in Ducks, which do not normally frequent
hard ground, and in cage-birds the claws will
grow sideways away from the perch; so it seems
to be merely a pathological over-secretion of horn,
and may be compared to the similar overgrowth
which takes place in the rudimentary back hoofs of
many mammals in captivity.

The reproduction of lost parts seems not to occur
in birds, at any rate as a rule ; thus, a claw torn
off is not replaced, as all bird-fanciers know. I
have, however, come across one exception to this
in the case of a specimen of Pel's Fish-Owl (Scoto-
felia fell) which lived for years at the Zoo. One

342 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

of this bird's huge talons was broken right off short,
but was nevertheless reproduced so perfectly that
no one ordinarily would have ever suspected the
accident, though to me who knew of it the particular
claw was always recognizable.

CHAPTER XV

Relations of birds with men — Persecuted species — Parasitic or
commensal species — Domestic forms — Introduced forms and
the results of introduction.

I HAVE not left myself very much space to discuss
the especially interesting topic of the relations to
our race of various birds, and this is a subject on
which there is much to be said, and great divergence
of views. While the ordinary " man in the street "
is far too apt to pop off a gun at a bird he does not
know, and hastily to order to execution birds which
may not be doing the damage he thinks, or may
offset actual damage by benefits done in other ways,
the advocate of the birds makes himself or herself
ridiculous by extravagant praises of the feathered
folk, talking of them as if they were a set of angels,
and arguing on the one hand that we could not
exist without them, and on the other that we ought
to exist for their benefit.

As a matter of fact, though on the whole hardly
ever dangerous, and seldom seriously destructive,
and often both directly and indirectly useful, birds
are not indispensable, for their work in insect-
destruction could be done by bats, batrachians and
reptiles, to say nothing of insect-preying insects ;

343

344 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

and as food they cannot compare in utility with
beasts and fish, though they ought to be more
used than they are, and indeed were so, not so many
centuries back, even in this country, where a silly
superstition against eating any birds other than
ordinary game and poultry is springing up. As to
admitting they have any " rights " to share our
buildings and produce, I am a humanist, not a
humanitarian ; if birds get in our way, they must
go, as the large beasts have gone, in my opinion —
though I never met anybody more keenly interested
in birds than I am myself, I only respect humanity.

At the same time, it may be freely admitted that
man has in the past, and is still, far too hard on
many species, and has even exterminated some
quite gratuitously ; though, as I remarked in a
recent book of mine, " Wild Animals of Yesterday
and To-day," it is fortunate that none of those
exterminated are of very great account either
aesthetically or scientifically. The Dodo is the only
such one which has become popularly known, and
only this and the tallest of the New Zealand Moas
would attract attention in a live or dead zoological
collection, as anybody may see if they can get a
look through Lord Rothschild's monograph on
Extinct Birds.

It must be remembered that most of the birds man
has extinguished inhabited islands, and that in early
days people had no exact ideas as to the distribution
of animals, and so did not know the extent of the
harm that was being done ; even in the last century

THE EAGLE AS ELIMINATOR 345

an idea lingered that the Great Auk might be re-
discovered in the Arctic regions, an area which it,
as a matter of fact, never reached. When not in-
sular in habitat, birds have generally become extinct
through the habit of colony-breeding, a useful one
in wild nature, because fighters like Terns and
Weavers may beat off an enemy ; and in any case
the enemy, if always successful in raiding, is never-
theless likely to get tired of eating the same food,
a change of diet being acceptable and generally
essential to vertebrates.

When an Eagle used to alight on one of the trees
inhabited by our free colony of Night-Herons and
Dwarf CoTmoiants(Phalacrocorax javanicus) in the
Calcutta Zoo, a roar went up from the combined
cries of the terrified birds like a train entering a
railway-station ; yet I have not the slightest
doubt that, thotfgh they made no attempts to
mob him, he would not have broken up the colony
even had he not been very unnecessarily shot.
But then no human inroad was being made on these
fishing-birds as well ; when man wants birds and
their eggs for his own use, to say nothing of other
animals such as sheep, to which, for instance, Eagles
are enemies, he must inevitably make war on the
birds of prey ; though there is no need to exter-
minate them completely, and as a matter of fact
no bird of prey has been exterminated as yet,
though many have been driven from districts they
once occupied. Several Parrots have, however,
been exterminated from islands, Parrots being both

346 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

very destructive to field and orchard produce and
valued as human food.

It is curious how well some species of the smaller
birds hold their own in spite of ages of persecution ;
the Quail has been massacred wholesale since the
days of Moses, and probably long before that, and
yet would hold its own well if it were not for the
wasteful spring netting. The Blackbird and Thrush
were favourite game-birds in the Mediterranean
region in the classical ages, and are so still, and
yet they are a great deal too common for the peace
of mind of our fruit-growers ; while even the little
Blackcap Warbler is cited as a fruit- destroyer un-
deserving of protection, though it appears that
Cyprus has driven a brisk trade in bottled Black-
caps since the Middle Ages !

The fact is, man creates by his cultivations and
by the extermination of predatory wild life so
favourable an environment for the weaker land-
birds that he really gives back to bird- life in this
way what he takes away by destroying forests,
draining marshes, killing for food, and otherwise
interfering with the larger birds, especially the
aquatic and marsh-haunting species. Even these
are very abundant yet in India, where the cultiva-
tion of rice, an aquatic plant, favours them ; and
the abundance of the birds of prey, so rare in Europe,
strikes every one who goes out there.

The common Indian Kite, indeed, a local race
of the Black Kite of Europe, is one of the species
that may fairly be classed as a parasite or com-

SCAVENGERS AND FRIENDS 347

mensal of man, since it lives chiefly on refuse from
his food, makes its nest frequently on his buildings,
and lines the said nest with rags if it can get them ;
and it is well known that the Red Kite (Milvus
regalis) of Europe did the same here, until sanita-
tion and the absence of garbage reduced it to a
poultry-yard pest, and there was instituted a per-
secution of it which has nearly exterminated it in
our islands.

Scattered here and there about the world there
are many such house-haunting species of birds, be-
longing to widely different groups ; commensals or
beneficial allies rather than true parasites, since
they generally pay for their lodging by services as
scavengers or destroyers of pests. The feeling
towards these varies from toleration, as in the case
of carrion-birds like the Kites, the small Vultures
of the Egyptian Vulture type (Neophron) and the
Turkey-Buzzards and Black Vulture of the American
Vulture-family (Catbartidce), to positive affection
such as is shown for the White Stork in Europe
and Asia Minor, Abdim's Stork in Africa (Abdimia
abdimii), and the Swallows everywhere, which
really have a great deal for which to thank man-
kind, on whose homes they commonly prefer to
build, abandoning in most districts their natural
breeding-sites on cliffs or hollow trees.

Sparrows also, in spite of their pilferings, are
befriended on the whole, and the common Pigeon is
universally beloved, by Christians, Mohammedans,
and Buddhists, and was probably not deliberately

348 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

domesticated till long after a period of commensal
existence ; at any rate in the East, the true wild
Blue-rock of the Eastern race intermedia without
the white patch on the back, is still found breeding
not only in ruins, but in inhabited houses and in
the sides of wells. A wonderful bird is this familiar
creature, with an iron constitution which enables
it to bear any climate from the Shetlands to Bur-
mah, and to live on any food, from the scanty
herbage of the cliffs to scraps of man's food found
in our streets ; near my lodgings I often see Pigeons
picking even at bones and suet.

Indeed, if, as I suppose we ought, we look on
man as part of nature, the Rock-Pigeon can claim
to have beaten even the Turnstone, for it is probably
far more numerous than that bird, now that man
has added to its enormous natural range by taking
it all over the world where the white race settles
or trades. Only one other Pigeon has been domesti-
cated, the pretty Collared Dove, a North-east
African bird, which has varied but little, and yet
retains a wonderful swiftness of flight when re-
stored to liberty, in spite of a domestication of
unknown date.

The Game-birds, however, have yielded the
greatest number of domestic species, the Fowl
being so familiar that, as Blyth pointed out, it has
no name, " fowl " being simply Old English for
" bird/* and it is certainly at present the most
important species to man. The Turkey, however,
supplied its place with the aborigines of Mexico,

BIRDS TAMED FOR ORNAMENT 349

though in Europe and elsewhere in the Old World
it seems to have remained solely as an article of
luxury, having usurped the place which the Peacock
held in Roman civilization. It does credit to
humanity's love of natural beauty, so often ques-
tioned by nature-enthusiasts, that the Peacock, the
most splendid of birds, is kept and has been widely
disseminated for its beauty alone in modern times ;
and the same praise may be given to man for his
domestication of the Golden and Silver Pheasants,
and of a few less well-known species, as well as of
the Guinea- Fowl, which used to be kept as a curi-
osity and no doubt was regarded as very ornamental,
for Hasselquist says he considered it the most
beautiful of birds after the Humming-bird and Pea-
cock. Like the last bird, the Guinea-Fowl has varied
but little, only showing colour-aberrations as a rule,
though I once got one in India that would have
delighted Darwin, as it had a pendulous tuft of
feathers hanging from its neck, much like the
Turkey's beard of bristles, which, Darwin said,
would have been called a monstrosity had it ap-
peared under domestication.

From considerations of beauty, too, the African
tribes in some places, although the negro seems the
least refined of human races, encourage the Northern
Crowned Crane (Balearic a favonina) about their
villages.

The Duck tribe have contributed the next most
important quota to our domestic bird-world, and
as the Indian Runner breed lays better than any

3so BIRD BEHAVIOUR

Fowls, may be destined to rise in importance. The
Muscovy Duck, indeed, being widely kept not
only in its tropical American home, but in Africa
and the Pacific islands, may claim to be more
important as food than any other tame bird except
the Fowl, and is even more easily raised, though its
utility is nowadays not recognized in Britain. The
common Goose is the oldest of domesticated birds
as far as positive evidence goes, long antedating the
Fowl, to say nothing of the common Duck, whose
domestication only dates back to the Christian era,
since the Roman Ducks of that time were liable to
fly away; the Muscovy had already been tamed
by the natives when South America was discovered.
The Chinese Goose (Cygnopsis cygnoides} is the
Goose of India as well as China and Japan, and
apparently kept in West Africa also, from its name
of Guinea Goose, but the date of its reclamation is
unknown.

Besides these practical waterfowl, we have do-
mesticated the common Swan and the Carolina
Duck — another tribute to man's love of beauty,
for Swans are rarely eaten nowadays. It is a good
thing that the Carolina's domestication is accom-
plished, for this bird is said to be in danger of
extinction in America, where extermination seems
to be most difficult of control. Perhaps, however,
there is some weakness in the American birds
which makes them " go under " more easily under
persecution ; it seems strange that the Passenger
Pigeon (Ectofistes migrator ius) should have become

FITNESS IN WATERFOWL 351

extinct in half a century, while our Wood-Pigeon
is so very common — indeed, too often a common
nuisance.

As far as the Carolina Duck is concerned, it has
always struck me that, although slightly larger and
generally the winner in their contests, it is a less
" fit " bird than its Oriental cousin the Mandarin,
which is so freely imported from the East that its
domestication has never been completed, and is
certainly far more active, wiry, and versatile in
its habits. Similarly our Greylag Goose is a
harder-looking, more active bird than the splendid
Canadian Goose, its analogue in the New World,
although it does not seem able to stand up to it
when it comes to fighting, where mere size in
birds of the same habits is apt to tell, as cock-
fighters well knew, endeavouring as they did to
match birds of approximately the same weight.

Of Parrots we have only domesticated one
Australian species, the Budgerigar, which is already
a most formidable rival of the Canary ; I hope
in time it will supplant it, for Budgerigars are
usually kept in pairs, and the worst infliction in
captivity to a bird is the solitary confinement,
except in the case of those unsociable species which
prefer to be alone, and even they would like a
mate when in breeding condition. I have noticed
in the case of Pekin Robins, which are not true
Robins, but Babblers, and so members of a very
sociable group, that a single bird turned out will
return to its companion or companions, but that if

352 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

you let out a pair or a number they will wander off ;
though in at least one case where this has been
done a pair has stayed and bred, and the species is,
I believe, established at the Duke of Bedford's park
at Woburn.

Besides the Canary, which is a bird of recent
European domestication, man has domesticated, at
some unknown date and in the far east of Asia,
two Weaver- Finches, the Java Sparrow (Munia
oryzivora), of which the domestic form is white
or pied, but with a strong tendency to revert to
the original lavender-grey, and the Sharp-tailed
Finch (Uroloncha acuticauda), a little brown bird
whose dark pied and cinnamon pied varieties —
they are seldom pure white — are known in the
bird trade as " Bengalese." Both wild and tame
forms of these two Finches are imported, but in
the Java the wild form is far the most common in
the bird trade, whereas with the other bird it is
very much the reverse. The Java Sparrow has been
established as a wild bird in many places in the
warm parts of the Old World, even as far from its
original home as Zanzibar and St. Helena.

Finally, within the last half-century the Ostrich
has been fully domesticated, surely the most
remarkable of the conquests of man, this swift
creature of the desert being the very emblem of
freedom, in spite of its Sightlessness ; and this
domestication has not only saved it from much
persecution, but caused it to be transported to
most quarters of the globe, for there are Ostrich

THE PRAISE OF CHANTICLEER 333

farms now in Australia and both North and South
America, though in South Africa there has been, it
seems, such a drop in value of late that the poor
birds have been allowed even to die of neglect, if
press information is correct.

Taken altogether, man has done well with his
domesticated birds ; all, or nearly all, are species
of remarkable interest in some way or other, even
the plain-coloured Grey Goose being a bird of
unusual intelligence and character, while there is
nothing in wild nature more noble and gallant than
the poets' favourite, honest Chanticleer :

" While the cock, with lively din,
Scatters the rear of Darkness thin,
And to the stack, or the barn-door
Stoutly struts his dames before."

And to have disseminated this fine bird from his
Indian home " to the cold white ends of the north "
and to the farthest Antipodes' seems to me alone
to atone for what man has done in the extermination
of some unfortunate forms of bird-life.

The Fowl has run wild over a vast area to the
east of its original habit, so that its exact original
wild boundaries are unknown, and it ought to be
encouraged to become feral in all tropical countries,
if only as a food supply for explorers, who often
find it nearly as easy to starve in the tropics as in
the cold zones. New Guinea, for instance, is a
country badly deficient in food supplies at present,
and feral poultry there would be a useful stand-by.

354 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

I have always been a supporter of the artificial
extension of the range of desirable birds ; as we
must, in our own interests, curtail the range of some
species, it is only reasonable that we should extend
that of others, while the harm supposed to be done
by introduced birds is in most cases grossly exag*
gerated. According to the current stories, which
are circulated by exactly that class of naturalist
which hunts to death the last remnants of hard-
pressed species, introduced birds increase enor-
mously, change their habits and become a pest,
-and persecute to the death the " interesting indige-
nous avifauna."

The real facts are that any bird which increases
largely and is at all omnivorous is liable to change
its habits and become a pest in its own country or
-any other, for where individuals are numerous
there is always a greater chance of some striking
-out a new line ; I have noticed, for instance, that
in the few cases in which I have seen Starlings
feeding in a street, they have always been single birds,
and those that roost on Nelson's Column in Tra-
falgar Square (where, curiously enough, they never
.alight on the statue of the hero himself) used, when
I first observed them some years ago, only to drop
in in ones and twos, and not, as now, in parties.

So it is, no doubt, that one hears complaints
about introduced Starlings from fruit-growers in
Australia — and also in England, now that this
bird has so much increased here. As to the effect
on the interesting indigenous avifauna, this, as

A REFORMED COLONIST 355

the case of the sheep-killing Kea in New Zealand,
and of many fruit-eating birds in Australia, well
demonstrates, can do a bit in the way of change
of habits and pestiferousness itself, and I have yet
to discover the species of bird which is known to
have been exterminated by the introduction of an
avian alien. Even the Sparrow, which is certainly
the worst character on whom we have endeavoured
to confer the citizenship of the world, has a good
word said for him by some New Zealand naturalists,
and is doing something to reinstate his character in
America by a vigorous war on that most serious
pest, the alfalfa weevil.

Where native birds are scarce, or where man
makes the land uninhabitable for many of them by
cutting down the ancient forest, as he generally
has to do, new birds must be introduced if birds
are as useful as they are supposed to be, and so the
Starling and House-Mynah will have to be distributed
over the world, as they have been in Australasia, un-
less ornithologists find out some way of preserving
native species in new countries. Fortunately, there
is no sentiment against the introduction of game-
birds and wildfowl, and the sporting interest is
always powerful for the establishment of preserves
for them ; and as the conditions of such preserves —
the provision of plenty of cover, food-supplies, and
ready access to water — are just those which are
favourable to bird-life in general, the sportsman is
in the long run the best friend of the birds. He
may, and does, favour the particular species in

356 BIRD BEHAVIOUR

which he is interested at the expense of others.
But Nature, let alone, does just the same ; and
after seven years' of observation of her policy in
India, it seems to me that man's methods are
better ; for although I am no sportsman, yet, as a
naturalist, I would rather see a country swarm with
wildfowl and game than with Hawks and Crows.

INDEX

Abnormalities of colour, 337

Adelie Penguin, habits well re-
corded, 4 ; fighting methods,
297

Adjutant, bone-swallower, 95 ;
pouch air-inflated, 325

Albatross, attacking man, 63 ;
death-trap for, 25 ; flight of,
21

American Vultures, roost sitting,

317

Amherst Pheasant, song of, 285
Apteryx, incubation, 148 ; nos-
trils at end of beak, 243 ;
whiskers, 248 ; scent, 243 ;
sight bad, 225 ; sleeping pose,

317

Argus Pheasant, mouth of, 326
Aristotle, on Lycian Daw, 223 ;

on white Blackbirds, 337
Auks, flight and swimming of,

26 ; young, 126
Avadavat, selection in hen, 242
Avocet, brooding pose, 113

Babblers, Cuckoo-fosterers in
India, 191 ; not casting pel-
lets, 95

Barbets, ancestral to Toucans,
35 ; habits of young, 131 ;
nesthole- cutting, 172 ; whis-
kers of, 253

Barnby Smith, Mr. C., on Turn-
stone, 43

Baya Weaver, its skilfully built
nest, 175

Bearded Reedling, scratching
for food, 55

Bee-eaters, burrowing of, 171 ;

caught by fish, 299 ; dusting

and bathing, 314; gait, 15
Bell-birds, metallic note of, 291
Berners, Dame Juliana, on

Shrike, 283
Birds of Paradise, side-plumes

degenerate, 302
Birds' -nesting Eagle, its peculiar

habits, 59

Birds of prey, feeding abnor-
malities in, 34 ; flight, 21,26;

mode of seizing food, 55 ;

pellets cast by, 94
Blackbird, albinoes anciently

known, 337 ; change of colour

in bill, 328
Blackcaps, exported pickled

from Cyprus, 346
Blackcock, ground-bird with

forked tail, 32 ; hybrid with

Capercailzie, 337
Bonhote, Mr. J. L., his multiple

hybrids, 335
Bonxie, or Great Skua, eats

Kitti wakes, 58
Bower-birds, various play grounds

of, 307
Brain-fever bird, an Indian

Cuckoo, 191
Brazilian Teal, quarrel with

Mallard, 275
Broadbills, skilful nest-builders,

184

Brush-Turkey, incubation-
period of, 158; uses foot in

feeding, 90
Budgerigar, a domestic parrot,

351 ; endurance of thirst,

357

358

INDEX

10 1 ; incubation, 160 ; in-
telligence, 261 ; different-sized
young in nest, 153
Buff on, on Hornbills' helmets,

51
Bulbuls, courting pose of, 271 ;

drunkenness in, 67 ; eating

earth, 99

Buller, on habits of Huia, 45
Bustard, food of, 104 ; hunted by

ancient Greeks, 32 ; scanty

nest, 169
Button-quails or Hemipodes,

females feeding males, no

Californian Quail, over-laying

by, 152

Canary, tragedy in nest of, 153
Cannibalistic tendencies in birds,

58
Capercailzie, bill differs in sexes,

47 ; fights of, 307 ; hybrids

with Blackgame, 337
Cape Tit, remarkable nest of,

179
Caracara, change of colour in

face, 324; malice to eagle,

270
Cardinal, Red, hen singing, 289 ;

hybrids between two species,

332

Cariama, peculiar young of, 126
Carolina Duck, domesticated in

Europe, 350 ; mating with

Mandarin, in
Carrion-crow, crosses with

Hooded Crow, 337 ; wood-
cutting power of, 53
Cassowaries, females dominant

in, 10 ; pure green egg-layers,

143 ; weapons of, 293
Cat-birds, American and Aus-
tralian, 290
Cere, function of, 251
Cereopsis, terrestrial Australian

Goose, 19
Chaffinch, getting drunk, 67 ;

seasonal change in bill of,

326
Chaja, or Crested Screamer,

feeding-habits changed, 65 ;

weapons, 296

Clarke, Mr. B., Swifts ejecting
Sparrows from his roof, 186

Claws, overgrowth of, 341 ;
reproduction of, 341

Cockatoos, longevity, 320 ; nest-
ing-habits, 172; powder-secre-
tion, 302 ; rational talking,
288 ; as wood-cutters, 53

Cockroaches eaten by various
birds, 73

Colics, or Mouse-birds, roosting
pose, 318

Condor, incubation-period, 160 ;
poor scenting powers of, 244

Coot, (young bird feedingyounger,
106

Coppersmith Barbet, 291 note ;
whiskers, 252

Cormorant, change of habit in,
1 1 ; method of feeding young,
118

Cow-birds, parasitic habits, 201

Crab- Plover, nesting habits, 172

Cranes, feeders on vegetables,
34; playfulness, 305; moult
of quills, 325 ; sham eggs, 162 ;
young of, 137

Creepers, mode of climbing, 17

Cross-bill, beak of, 48

Crow- Pheasant, like Hawk when
young, 195 ; toad-eating, 96 ;
uses foot in feeding, 89

Crows, cunning of Indian, 59,
1 60 ; hatching fowls' eggs,
192

Cuckoos, their feeding-habits,
97 ; mimicry, 195 ; parasitic
habits, 187

Cuckoo-Shrikes, resemble Cuc-
koos, 197

Curassow, male bird building,
178 ; method of fighting, 295 ;
selective mating, 274

Dabchick, indifference to Kites,

226 ; nursery food of, 104
Darter, its submerged swimming,

19 ; young expanding mouth,

118
Desert-Chough, feeding on

ordure, 95

INDEX

359

Dewar, Mr. D., on Crow hatch-
ing hen's egg, 192 ; on pirati-
cal Tern, 312

Dipper, a diving Thrush, 19

Dove, domesticated, 348 ; species
marked like Cuckoo, 197 ; with
note like Cuckoo, 290

Down of young birds, coloured
like fur of mammals, 139

Dragon-flies, often eaten by
birds, 75

Drongo, mimicked by Cuckoo,
203 ; police instinct of, 278

Ducks, colour of eggs, 142 ;
feeding habits, 38 ; fledging,
124; their heat-endurance,
213 ; incubation, 158, 160 ;
nesting, 185, 265

Dwarf Bittern,quick wing-action
of, 24

Eagles, robbing other birds of
prey, 312 ; strength of, 57

Edible-nest Swifts, 182

Eggs, 141

Emperor Penguin, breeding-
habits, 167

Emu, incubation peculiarities,
159; plucked by Crows, 64 ;
striped young, 138

Enemies of birds, 141

Falcon, male feeding young,

in ; method of killing prey,

56

Feet used in feeding, 87
Finfoots, our ignorance of their

young, 134
Flamingoes, mode of feeding,

39; style of fledging, 128
Fledging, different modes of,

122

Flickers, hybridizing forms, 240
Flower-peckers, pensile nests of,

178 ; passing maggots alive,

9i

Flycatchers, casting pellets, 94
Fowl, bird with no special

name, 348 ; hybrid, 330, 332 ;

becoming intoxicated on

nilloo, 67

Friar-birds, bathing on wing,
3 14 ; chasing Hawks and
Crows, 278

Frigate-birds, involuntary sui-
cide of, 25 ; pouch air-inflated,
325 ; piratical habits, 312 ;
verminous, 316

Fruit Pigeons, hopping, 15 ;
feeding on ground in New
Zealand, 66

Fulmar, supposed abundance of,
149 ; scent of egg of, 146

Gait of birds, 13

Game-birds, incapacity for mi-
gration, 214 ; mode of fight-
ing, 295 ; scratching habits,
55 ; weapons of, 294

Game-fowls, fighting powers of,
295 ; scratching habits, 55

Gannet, solitary egg-layer, 146 ;
method of flight, 20

Geese, varied colours of young,
136 ; intelligence, 259 ; threa-
tening to fight, 300

Graham, on Hooded Crow, 161

Great Auk, extinct through flight-
lessness, 24

Grebes, eating own feathers,
105 ; mode of alighting, 26 ;
young carried by, 114

Griffon Vultures, driving off
smaller species, 69

Ground-Hornbills, walking gait
of, 14

Ground- Parrakeets, 19

Grouse, feeding in winter, 209 ;
hybrids of, moult of toe-
fringes, 328

Guacharo, feeding habits, 184 ;
nest, 184

Guans, tameness of, 259

Guinea-Fowl, abnormal variety

of, 349

Gulls, character of young, 125 ;
drinking fresh water, 99

Hairy caterpillars eaten by

Cuckoos, 97
Hammerkop, nature and nest of,

183

INDEX

Hawaiian Goose, living without

water, 19
Hawks, typical, mode of killing

prey, 56 ; skill in settling, 26
Hearing, perfection of this sense,

245
Hedge-Sparrow, great digestive

power of, 92
Herons, peculiarities of flight,

21, 24 ; powdered plumage,

302 ; variations in colour,

339

Hoatzin, young of, climbing
with wing-claws, 132

Homing instinct, 217

Honey-eaters, tongue of, 83 ;
pugnacity of, 278

Honey-guides, parasitic habits
of, 198

Hoopoes, nesting-habits, 108 ;
young, 136

Hornbills, diet of, 35, 97 ; hel-
met as a handicap, 51 ; nest-
ing habits, 170

Hudson, Mr. W. H., on change
of habits in Chaja, 65 ; on
gluttony of Missel-Thrush, 70

Huia, peculiarities of, 45

Humming-birds, feeding habits,
8 1 ; flight, 23 ; kept in Eng-
land, 82 ; nests, 183

Hyacinthine Macaw, great power
of bill, 86

Hybrids, characters of, 329 ;
multiple, 335

Ibis, hybrid with Spoonbill, 44 ;
mode of feeding young, 117

Ja9ana, deciduous wing spurs

of, 328
Jackdaw, nuptial soaring flight,

307 ; sense of smell, 243
Jay, flight of, 32; "Pica" of

Romans, 223 ; storage habit,

3°9

Kea, a sheep-killing Parrot, 61 ;

peculiar movements of, 64
Kestrel : a typical hoverer, 22
King-bird, police instinct of, 278

King-Crow, or Drongo, also
Police- Bird, 278

Kingfishers, bathing methods,
214 ; burrowing, 171 ; hover-
ing, 23 ; not drinking, 100 ;
piracy by, 312; retrograde
gait of young, 131

Kite, commensal with man,
347 ; deluded incubation of,
162 ; robbed by crows, 160

Kittiwake, preyed on by Skua, 58

Kiwis, see Apteryx

Koel feeding female, 108 ; para-
sitic on Crows, 191

Lammergeier, digesting bone,
95 ; laying one egg, 150

Lapwing, escaping Hawks, 30 ;
longevity of, 321

Larks, methods of cleansing
their feathers, 314; various
bills of, 86

Laughing Jackass, hops, unlike
other Kingfishers, 15

Lories, gait of, 15 ; honey-
feeders, 85

Lowe, Dr. P., on accidents to
Frigate-birds, 25

Lyre-birds, imitative faculty of,
283 ; scratching-power, 55

Macaw, smiling gesture when

pleased, 263
Magpie-Goose, ancestral form,

2 ; feeding habits, 37
Mallard, feeding habits, 38 ;

quarrel with Brazilian Teal,

2/5

Mandarin Duck, imperfect
percher, 17 ; misunderstand-
ing mate, 292 ; nesting, 129

Mergansers, toothed bills of, 37

Moas, suggested attacks on
them by Keas, 64

Mocking-bird, its mischievous
tricks, 30 5 ; song spoilt by bad
notes, 249

Monaul, hoeing for food, 55 ;
intolerance of heat, 213

Moorhens, claws on wing of
young, 133 ; older young feed-
ing small ones, 106

INDEX

361

Moult, peculiarities of in differ-
ent groups, 325

Mound-birds, their natural in-
cubators, 157 ; young of, 122
Mouse-birds, or Colics, roosting

habits of, 318

Musk-Duck, low fertility of, 147
Mutton-bird, its abundance, 149
Mynah, incubation without sit-
ting, 155 ; introduced abroad,
355 ; preying on lizard, 72;
talking, 288

Nelly, or Giant Petrel, feeding
on smaller species, 58

Nicobar Pigeon, localized nest-
ing of, 2ii

Nicoll, Mr. M. J., on Steamer-
Duck, 27

Nightingale, its song a chal-
lenge, 276

Nightjars, peculiar notes of, 290 ;
young of, 131

Noddy Terns, homing powers
of, 217

Nuthatch, bill as hammer, 44 ;
nesting of, 181 ; storage in-
stinct, 309

Open-bill, structure of beak, 38

Orange Bishop-bird, repelled
by female, 257

Orioles, coloration similar to
Troupials, 175 ; mimicry in,
278 ; nests of, 174

Osprey, able to relinquish prey,
298 ; curious old belief about
its feet, 10

Ostrich, form of foot, 14 ; nest-
ing habits, 155 ; power of
defence, 293

Oven-bird, peculiar nest of, 181 ;
seized by others, 186

Owls, day- vision of, 229 ; ferocity
of, 57, 63 ; perching pose,
317 ; nesting, 185 ; storage
instinct in, 310

Owl-Parrot or Kakapo, flight-
less ground species, 19

Oyster-catcher, bill of, 40

Paradise-Duck, sex-difference

of, 46
Parrots, movements of, 17

nesting habits, 171, 268

young of, 136; using feet as

hands, 88
Partridges, feigning injury, 277

method of flight, 20
Passenger Pigeon, now extinct

149

Passerine birds, flight of, 20
method of fledging, 125

Pea-Fowl, sexual selection in
273; vigilance of, 231, 246
pairing of Javan, 248

Pelican, use of bill in, 37

Pellet-casting, habit of, 94

Pekin Robin, method with ants,
96

Penguins, mode of swimming
in, 1 8 ; pebbles used in nest,
170 ; quadrupedal locomo-
tion in, 27 ; short-sighted out
of water, 229

Petrels, diurnal at sea, 232 ;
mistaken for swallows, 323 ;
wide distribution, 221

Phalaropes, dominance of fe-
males in, 10

Pheasants, incubate longer than
fowls, 161 ; song of, 287

Pigeons, digestive powers, 93 ;
flight fast, 28 ; powdery plum-
age of, 302 ; shares in incuba-
tion of the sexes, 1 16 ; young
fed with milky secretion, 117

Pliny, on gait of birds, 12 ; on
Kite's use of tail, 30 ; on
Magpies, 223 ;

Plovers, bills like pigeons', 36 ;
boring habits, 42 ; spurs on
wings in, 296

Poisons, tolerated by certain
birds, 96

Ptarmigan, moult of claws in,
328

Pufffn, abundance of, 149 ;
breeding habits, 171, 185 ;
change of bill, 328

Quadrupedal locomotion of some
birds, 27, 132

362

INDEX

Quail, semi-nocturnal habits of,
231 ; resistance to persecu-
tion, 346 ; Painted and Harle-
quin, gallantry of males, 109

Quaker Parrakeet, as nest-
builder, 1 86

Rails, intelligent birds, 265
Ratite birds, feminism in, 115
Raven, not so long-lived as sup-
posed, 320 ; j sense of smell in,

243
Redpolls, playfulness of young,

303
Reptile-eating birds of prey,

specialization of, 56
Rhea, curious breeding habits

of, H5

Road-runner, fast running of, 19

Robin, early breeder, 165; hatred
of red in other birds, 233

Rogeron, M. G., on Ducks eating
earth, 99 ; on scent in Jack-
daw, 243

Rollers, young feeding fellow-
nestlings, 106

Rook, feeding female on nest,
106

Ruff, frill not a defence, 301

Rusty-cheeked Babbler, its bill
used as pick-axe, 45

Salt, appetite for, 99
Sand-Grouse, covering eggs from

heat, 155 ; speed of, 30 ;

watering young, 102
Sand-pipers, laying in old nests

of other birds, 186
Satin-bird, preference for blue,

308
Scissor-bills, exaggeration of

tern type, 221
Screamers, padded armour of,

299
Secretary-bird, feeding habits

of, 6 1 ; weak flight of, 32
Seed-Snipes, bathing habits,

314; vegetable feeders, 34
Sexual selection, 241
Shag, swallowing under water,

100
Shama, its excellence of song, 216

Shearwaters mistaken for Swifts
by Pliny, 323

Sheldrakes, their dislike for
Geese, 275 ; diving when
young, 126 ; nesting in rabbit
holes, 185

Shoveller Duck, mode of feed-
ing, 37 ; speed of flight, 28

Shrikes, mocking instinct, 285 ;
spearing prey alive, 309

Skuas, piratical habits, 312

Snail-Hawk, peculiar diet and
structure, 60

Snake-bird, name given to
Darters, 19

Snakes, their sloughs used as
nest-linings, 311

Snipe, action of beak in, 41 ;
difference in common and Pin-
tail species, 42 ;

Song-Thrush, catching a fish, 72

Sparrow, imitating song bird, 7 ;
versatility of, 4, 7

Spine-tail Swifts, speed of, 29

Spoonbill, feeding method of,
44 ; hybrid with Ibis, 44

Spot-bill Duck, breeding with
Mallard, 241 ; speed of flight, 28

Spurs of birds, 294, 296

Starling, honey-sucking habit
acquired by, 84 ; relations to
insects, 237

Steamer-Duck, mode of progres-
sion, 27

Storks, friendly with man, 347 ;
mode of feeding young, 119

Storm-Petrel, large egg of, 149 ;
long incubation, 159

Sugar-bird, honey-eater related
to Tanagers, 84

Sun-birds, diet, 82 ; feigning
death, nests, 178 ; preying
on lizards, 72

Sun-bittern, nestling, 130 ; mud
nest, 184

Swallow-Plovers as locust-des-
troyers, 74

Swallows, perishing through de-
lay, 210 ; relations with man,

347

Swans, carrying young, 1 14 ;
pulling food for them, 127

INDEX

363

Swifts, distinctions from Swa-
lows, 9 ; power of rising, 26 ;
pugnacity of, 298

Tailor-bird, peculiarities of nest,
179

Tanagers, imperfect digestion in
some, 91 ; feeding Cuckoo,
189

Terns, feeding females, no ;
universal distribution of, 221

Thrushes, pre-eminent as song-
sters, 217

Tinamou, beautiful eggs of,
143 ; exceptional roosting
habit, 317

Tinker, small barbet parasitized
by Honey-guide, 198

Tits holding down food when
feeding, 87 ; storage instinct
in, 309

Toilet customs, 313

Tongue, structure and func-
tions of, 77

Toucans, eating mixed diet, 35

Touracous, young of, 133

Tragopans, precocious fledging
of, 122

Trogons, differences in diet ac-
cording to distribution, 35

Tropic-birds, flight of, 31

Tui, mocking New Zealand
Honey-eater, 283

Turkey, display of, 323 ; gizzard
°*. 93 ; gluttony of, 67

Turnstone, its habits and mus-
cular strength, 42 ; wide dis-
tribution, 220

Varro, on birds shown in Rome,

337

Vegetarian families of birds, 34
Vultures, eating fruit, 34 ; not

so voracious as imagined, 68

Warblers, grey, rearing cuckoos
in New Zealand, 193

Wax-myrtle, berries eaten by
Swallows, 34

Waxwing, northern berry-eater,
209

Weavers, skilful nesters, 175 ;
stronger than typical finches,
215 ; tenement nest, 279

Weka, destructive to eggs and
chicks, 62 ; uses foot in feed-
ing, 89

Whale-birds, peculiar Petrels, 40

Wheatear, colonizing Alaska,
224

Whip-poor-will, characteristic
note, 290

Whitebeam berries, much fa-
voured by birds, 70

Woodcock, carrying young, 128

Wood-hoopoes, their peculiari-
ties, 50

Woodpeckers, eating fruit, 52 ;
sucking sap, 52 ; young, 251

Wood-Pigeon, intense greedi-
ness of, 66

Worms, little liked by many
birds, 71

Wry-billed Plover, unique New
Zealand form, 42 ;

Wryneck, induced to excessive
egg-production, 151 ; as
witches' charm, 80

Xenophon, on riding down Bus-
tards, 32

Yellow-billed Duck, breeding
with Mallard, 241

Zebra-Finch, its change of colour

in bill, 327
Zulus, their rendering of a

Nightjar's note, 254

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