148 WOODLAND CREATURES 



holding it head first and never the reverse, and 

 then begins to pluck it. With delicate precision 

 and a surprising amount of strength she pulls 

 out, one at a time, the firmly rooted wing-feathers. 

 The tail she usually leaves until later on, taking 

 next the soft body-feathers, which come away 

 in beakfuls, until she is surrounded by a ring of 

 them. At last the corpse is stripped, even the 

 stout tail-feathers having been pulled out, and then 

 she begins business in earnest, tearing the head 

 from the body that is, if she did not commence 

 by doing so, because she is often in such a hurry 

 for this delicacy that she does not wait to get 

 all the plucking done before eating it. Holding 

 the head in one foot, she breaks open the skull 

 so as to get at the brains, which latter are the 

 greatest treat. Having extracted all of them she 

 can, and picked as much off the head as possible, 

 and even eaten the eyes, she throws the beak away 

 with a quick jerk. She then turns back to the 

 body, picking the meat from the breast, legs, and 

 back, taking care not to miss the smallest atom 

 of meat or fat, especially the latter, of which she is 

 very fond, but rejecting with disgust the greater 

 part of the entrails. At last all the eatable portions 

 are finished, and having looked round to see 

 nothing has been missed, she proceeds to clean her 

 feet and beak. She picks the bits of flesh and 

 feather from her talons, then flies up to the branch 

 of a tree, whereon she rubs her beak most vigorously 

 so as to free it from all clinging remnants. She 

 next puffs up her feathers and gives them a good 



