CHAPTER V 



BIRDS AT PLAY 



ALTHOUGH birds seem to be such busy 

 creatures, it is not by any means a life of all 

 work and no play with many of them ; only 

 it sometimes takes a good deal of watching 

 to find out whether a bird is really playing 

 or earning its living ; a swallow, for instance, 

 chasing the tiny flying insects, looks as if 

 it were merely at play when it is really hunting 

 for a dinner. But when you see your pigeons, 

 which get their food on the ground, flying 

 round and round and trying to sail and glide 

 without flapping their wings, you can tell 

 that this is only play ; besides, when a pigeon 

 is really travelling it goes straight ahead in 

 quite another fashion. 



It is not always the lightest and most 

 active birds that are the most playful ; 

 geese and ducks, which look so clumsy, play 



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