vi FORM AND, FUNCTION 163 



Mr. Beddard mentions that the Great Spotted Wood- 

 pecker ate the caterpillar of the Buff-tip moths partially 

 after much pecking. 1 Was this because the conspicuous 

 colours frightened him or because the skin was over- 

 tough ? A Magpie rubbed the hairs off a caterpillar 

 before eating it. On the other hand a Gannet swallows 

 a mackerel whole. A Cormorant is only troubled by a 

 whole fish if he happens to swallow him headforemost 

 and so get the fins the wrong way. He has been 

 known to swallow a Starling with beak and feet and 

 everything appertaining to him, and to attempt to 

 swallow a young kitten. 2 The parrot gnaws his food 

 carefully like a dyspeptic. The great freedom with 

 which his upper beak works enables him to put its long 

 curved point to the front margin of the lower beak 

 when occasion requires. With this long point he 

 scoops out a Brazil nut when he has cracked the shell 

 like a piece of shortbread. 



The beak aided by the long and supple neck takes 

 the place of a hand. When the forelimbs became wings 

 and the former reptile, now a bird, stood comparatively 

 erect on two legs, some form of hand was clearly 

 necessary. The parrot uses his feet to lift food to his 

 mouth, but most birds know no hand but their beak. 

 It is also a weapon of offence, many birds being able 

 to give a powerful stroke not unlike that of a snake, 

 and far more promptly administered. When some 

 members of the Challenger expedition visited Penguin 

 kl rookeries " they found they must wear thick gaiters 



1 Animal Coloration , by F. E. Beddard, p. 155. 



2 See The Home of a Naturalist, by the Rev. B. Edmondston, 

 P- 77. 



M 2 



