SHARP EYES 35 



hole never eats anything that he cannot pick up with 

 his tongue ? At least this was the case with a young 

 one I took from the nest and tamed. He could 

 thrust out his tongue two or three inches, and it 

 was amusing to see his efforts to eat currants from 

 the hand. He would run out his tongue and try to 

 stick it to the currant; failing in that, he would 

 bend his tongue around it like a hook and try to 

 raise it by a sudden jerk. But he never succeeded, 

 the round fruit would roll and slip away every time. 

 He never seemed to think of taking it in his beak. 

 His tongue was in constant use to find out the na- 

 ture of everything he saw ; a nail-hole in a board or 

 any similar hole was carefully explored. If he was 

 held near the face he would soon be attracted by the 

 eye and thrust his tongue into it. In this way he 

 gained the respect of a number of half-grown cats 

 that were around the house. I wished to make them 

 familiar to each other, so there would be less danger 

 of their killing him. So I would take them both 

 on my knee, when the bird would soon notice the 

 kitten's eyes, and, leveling his bill as carefully as 

 a marksman levels his rifle, he would remain so a 

 minute, when he would dart his tongue into the cat's 

 eye. This was held by the cats to be very mysteri- 

 ous: being struck in the eye by something invisible 

 to them. They soon acquired such a terror of him 

 that they would avoid him and run away whenever 

 they saw his bill turned in their direction. He 

 never would swallow a grasshopper even when it was 

 placed in his throat; he would shake himself until 



