294 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE 







(Tyrannus tyrannus), captured 2nd July, as it was 

 taking one of its first lessons in flight. 



As is well known, the kingbird is exclusively insec- 

 tivorous, and generally captures its prey on the wing, 

 though it does not refuse insects that may lurk in the 

 foliage, and it may occasionally descend to the ground 

 in pursuit of grasshoppers, whose movements have be- 

 trayed their whereabouts. Being thus, in its activities, 

 so different from the omnivorous chick, and belonging, 

 moreover, to the great group of Gymnopsedes, or birds 

 which, naked-born, are fed in the nest, we might expect 

 certain differences from the instincts and habits of the 

 precocious, downy chick. Such differences may throw 

 light upon the questions of Comparative Psychology, 

 though, as the material for purposes of generalisation is 

 augmented, they may prove to be variations of no direct 

 suggestive value. 



From 2nd to the llth July the bird, almost inces- 

 santly calling for food, was kept in the house and fed 

 from the hand with shreds of meat, moist bread, and a 

 few insects. Water was taken from the wet finger, not 

 as a drop from the tip, but finger and all were seized, 

 the subsequent motions of deglutition being the same 

 as though any large morsel were being engulfed. To the 

 present day (16th July) the bird has utterly refused to 

 accept the pendent drop; nor could it be induced to 

 peck a drop from a leaf or from the surface of any 

 object whatever. 



On llth July I offered the bird a small porcelain 

 dish (such as is used for extract of beef) filled with 

 water. Though hungry, and presumably thirsty, no 

 effort was made towards taking the water, but the dish 

 was repeatedly seized with the same eager fluttering 

 that characterised the general reception of any proffered 

 article, edible or not. (It was noted that the tongue 



