Contents. xiii 



PAliE 



Feathers are Adapted to the Habits of Birds — Why the 

 Gannet is not Harmed when it Falls upon Water — Tail 

 Feathers : Effect of Use and Disuse — Difference between 

 an Owl's and a Wood Pig-eon's Feathers — The Trouble 

 Birds take with their Feathers — Moulting, Complete and 

 Partial — A Thing that is Best Done when Half Done — 

 Birds that AVear Stockings in Winter— Shape of Flight 

 Feathers — Shapes and Sizes of AVings — Kates at which 

 Different Species Beat their AVings — How Birds use the 

 Wind to Fly Upwards — Shapes their AVings Assume in 

 Flight— How they Alight— The Tail Feathers— Noises 

 Made by AVings — AVonders of Bird Aligration . . . 13G 



CHAPPEK VI. 



WONDERFUL CALLS AND SUNONOTES. 



Sight and Sound — Cheered by a Sparrow's Chirping — AVhy 

 Birds Sing — AVhere the Music is Made — A Ludicrous Per- 

 formance — How Birds Learn to Sing — Timing a Skylark's 

 Vocal Exercises — Singing Competitions among Chaffinches 

 — The Phonograph's Eecord of Thrushes' Songs — Black- 

 birds as A^ocalists — The Times when Birds Begin to Sing 

 in the Alorning and Cease to Sing in the Evening — The 

 Nightingale — The Sedge AVarbler — The Grasshopper 

 Warbler — A^'entriloquial Birds — The Nightjar — Peewits — 

 The Common Snipe and its AVeird Sound — AVhat a Cuckoo 

 says when he is Angry — Frightened to Death by a Tawny 

 Owl's Hooting — Birds that Sing Borrowed Songs: the 

 Starling, the Sedge AA^arbler, the Marsh AVarbler, the Robin, 

 the House Sparrow, the Red-backed Shrike — The Black- 

 cap AVarbler — Bird Language— Birds that Act as Sentinels 

 — CaU Notes— The Red Grouse— The Long-tailedTit-^ Call 

 Notes that Resemble Other Sounds — Baby Birds that Recog- 

 nise the Call Notes of their Parents — Birds that Rrquire 

 Corroborative Evidence 1(>7 



