HOW A BIRD FEEDS. 39 



head ornamented with curious tiny red wart- 

 like bodies of a bright red colour, but these 

 disappear as soon as the nestling period passes 

 away. We fear that the explanation of these 

 things is yet a long way off. 



It is possible, of course, that they may be 

 remnants of structures once more perfectly or 

 extensively developed : they may be the last 

 remaining record of a style of decoration now 

 obsolete. Just as the young lion bears upon 

 his coat distinct spots and stripes indicating his 

 origin from a striped ancestor. 



CHAPTER III. 



HOW A BIRD FEEDS. 



We may admit it grudgingly, we may never 

 have realised it as a fact, but is nevertheless 

 true that hunger, the imperative command to eat, 

 has played a most powerful part in the drama 

 of our evolution. Not less severe has been the 

 struggle for daily bread on the part of every 

 other living thing. The result of all this is writ 

 large in Nature's records, and the beasts of the 

 field, and the birds of the air, past and present, 

 are so many witnesses, eloquently silent, testi- 

 fying to the truth of this. 



Let us now confine ourselves to birds, and see 

 how this is borne out. 



It is obvious that a given area of land will 

 support a larger number of creatures of different 

 habits, and requiring different. fopd than would 



