84 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



almost of surprise, if it could be, at his own deedi- 

 ness — which, in a man, might be expressed by, 

 " Come, what do you think of that, now ? Not so 

 very bad, is it ? " A curious sort of half-resemblance 

 to humanics one gets in animals, sometimes — like, 

 but in an odd, bizarre way, more generalised, the 

 thing in its elements, less consciousness of what is 

 felt. They wear their rue with a difference, but 

 rue it is. It is interesting, too, to see the way in 

 which the fish is manipulated. It is not tossed into 

 the air, and caught, again, head downwards, nor does 

 it ever seem to be quite free of the beak, at all 

 points ; but keeping always the point, or anterior 

 part of the mandibles, upon it, the heron contrives, 

 by jerking its head about, to get it turned and lying 

 lengthways between them, en train for swallowing. 

 The whole thing has a very tactile appearance ; it 

 is wonderful with what delicacy and nicety, in nature, 

 very hard, and, as one would think, insensitive 

 material may be used. How, in this special kind 

 of handling, does the human hand, about which so 

 much has been said, excel the bird's beak .? The 

 superiority of the former appears to me to lie, rather, 

 in the number of things it can do, than in the greater 

 efficiency with which it can do any one of them. It 

 is curious, indeed, that the advantage gained here is 

 due to the principle of generalisation, as against that 

 of specialisation, which last we see more in the foot. 

 In its manipulation of the fish the serratures in 

 the upper mandible of its bill must be a great help to 

 the heron, and this may throw some light on the use 

 of the somewhat similar, though more pronounced, 

 ones in the claw of its middle toe. Concerning 



