How Birds Fight 



Birds of this group never, as far as I have 

 observed, use their wings in fighting, and they 

 never have special weapons ; yet their fights 

 are very fierce, and often fatal, the bill being 

 employed with great effect on the adversary's 

 head. 



Many stout-billed finches, such as the weavers 

 and the Java sparrow, have, in common with the 

 parrots, the cruel trick of biting their adversary's 

 feet, the feet being in birds peculiarly sensitive, 

 although one would not think it from looking 

 at these horny, wizened members. It is a 

 curious fact that parrots, when fighting, con- 

 stantly try to ward off the enemy with one foot, 

 a very senseless manoeuvre, since they thus only 

 expose their toes to injury needlessly. In the 

 only fatal fight between the large parrots I 

 knew of personally, between a blue and a red 

 macaw, in the Calcutta Zoological Gardens, 

 red fairly cracked blue's skull with his great 

 bill. It is curious, by the way, that parrots 

 and other biting birds do not aim, like many 

 beasts, at the throat — the upper part of the head 

 seems almost invariably to be the point of a 

 bird's attack. The birds of prey fight exclu- 

 sively, so far as I have seen, with their talons ; 

 in Calcutta it was a common thing to see two 

 kites whirling earthwards with their claws 

 clenched, the bird first attacked having turned 



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