DOMESTIC HABITS OF BIRDS. 



CHAPTER I. 



HABITS OF CLEANLINESS IN BIRDS. 



ANIMALS appear to be cleanly in proportion to their 

 sprightliness and activity ; and small animals, with 

 few exceptions, are also more active and more 

 cleanly than those of a larger size. The domestic 

 habits of birds, as well as what may be called their 

 personal habits, furnish us with many illustrations 

 of their peculiar attention to cleanliness, some of 

 which it may prove interesting to detail. The in- 

 stant any of their feathers are soiled they set about 

 trimming them, and they are no less attentive to 

 their nests. 



It is, no doubt, the same uncomfortable feeling 

 which we experience when our hair becomes disar- 

 ranged or tangled that induces birds to smooth their 

 feathers ; the matting together, for example, of two 

 contiguous feathers at the points, causing them upon 

 every motion of the muscles of the skin to twitch 

 away the parts from which they spring. The irrita- 

 tion thus produced incites the bird to examine the 

 feathers contiguous to the part ; and by nibbling 

 every plumelet with its beak, it soon succeeds in 

 bringing them into their proper position, while it 

 frees them, at the same time, from any extraneous 

 matter that may adhere to them. 



It is surprising how soon nestling birds may 



B 



