BIRDS 



13 



power in their claws. In our grouse or 

 partridge a horny, fringe-Hke growth ap- 

 pears on the toes late in the fall, serving 

 as a sort of snowshoe during the winter, 

 by which the bird is enabled to walk on 

 the surface of the snow. This growth 

 is shed in the spring. 



The bill is {he most important organ 

 of the four we are discussing. It has the 

 offices of the hand. There is an almost 

 limitless variation in its shape, admirably 

 adapted in each instance to its food re- 

 quirements. The fish-eating duck grasps 

 its prey with a saw bill. The pelican 

 catches its fish by diving from the air, 

 often from distances of forty feet, and 

 catches its fish in a bill an inch and a half 

 in width. As it throws its head out in 

 diving, it widens the rim of its bill and 

 catches the prey in its curious pouch. 

 The flamingo catches, with its food, mud 

 and sand, which it expels through a curi- 

 ous straining apparatus. The woodcock 

 has the power of curving up the upper 

 portion of its bill, giving it the grasping 

 power of a finger, which greatly aids it 

 in probing for worms. The woodpecker 



uses its bill as a chisel. In southern Ari- 

 zona the Californian woodpeckers have 

 used the poles of the Western Union 

 Telegraph Company in which to store 

 acorns, and in some instances have bored 

 large holes entirely through the poles. In 

 those woodpeckers which feed on bark we 

 find the tongue brush-like to swab up the 

 sap. Where woodpeckers chisel the 

 tongue is horny. In .prying off cones 

 from trees the cross-bill finds its appar- 

 ently malformed tongue most helpful. In 

 humming birds there is a marked vari- 

 ation in the bill, enabling them to feed on 

 dififerent sorts of flowers. 



The hurabird of New Zealand has the 

 most curious bill known. The male has 

 one sort which he uses in excavating, 

 after which the female can insert her bill 

 and secure the food which the male has 

 thus obtained. 



After a study of the various forms of 

 bird structure and habits has been made, 

 it still remains a problem whether their 

 structure is the result of natural selection, 

 or natural selection is the result of their 

 structure. 



WILSON'S THRUSH. 



( Turdus fuscescens.) 



THIS very interesting bird is found in 

 all parts of eastern North America. 

 Breeds in the states bordering on the 

 Great Lakes and as far north as Mani- 

 toba. It winters in Central America. It 

 is generally partial to low, swampy wood- 

 lands. He is much more shy than his 

 pretty cousin, the wood thrush ; he lives 

 nearer the ground and is not so likely to 

 leave the cover of his haunts. In locali- 

 ties where he is equally common with the 

 wood thrush he is less frequently ob- 

 served. 



The nest of this thrush is made of 

 strips of bark, rootlets and leaf stems, 

 wrapped with leaves and lined with fine 

 rootlets. The nest is always on or near 

 the ground. 



Mr. Chapman says of him: "He has 

 a double personality, or he may repeat the 



notes of some less vocally developed an- 

 cestor, for on occasions he gives utterance 

 to an entirely uncharacteristic series of 

 caching notes, and even mounts high in 

 the tree to sing a hesitating medley of the 

 same unmusical cacks, broken, whistled 

 calls and attempted trills. 



Fortunately, this performance is com- 

 p ratively uncommon, and to the most >+ 

 us he is known only by his own strange, 

 unearthly song. His notes touch chords 

 which no other bird's song reaches. The 

 water thrush is inspiring, the wood and 

 hermit thrushes "serenely exalt the 

 spirit," but Wilson's thrush or the veery 

 appeals to higher feelings. All the won- 

 drous mysteries of the wood find a voice 

 in his song; he thrills us with emotions 

 we can not express." 



