BIRDS OP THE WEST 13 



The woodpecker being more or less a carpenter, is provided with 

 a well tempered, well sharpened, hammer-like bill that enables him 

 to drill holes of almost any size either for the securing of food or 

 the construction of a home. 



No doubt the canna, the nasturtium and the trumpet-creeper 

 are as anxious to have the hummingbird work for them and fertil- 

 ize them as the hummingbird is to have them run a nectary for 

 him, so while the flowers have developed a deep cup to shut the 

 moths out, they have made it necessary for the hummingbird to 

 grow a long bill in order to reach the nectar. It is a pretty part- 

 nership they have entered into, the little boycotters. 



The swallows and flycatchers have opened their mouths so 

 wide and so much and so long to let the flies in, that their mouths 

 reach from ear to ear. 



The food of birds has a direct bearing upon the size and shape 

 of their feet. I called attention to the needle-pointed talons of the fish 

 hawk that enable him to grasp with certainty the fish beneath the 

 water and easily handle him within his native element. What a 

 feat it is! Here is the problem upon which you may ponder. A 

 fish hawk is flying in a circle at the rate of twenty miles an hour 

 while the wind is blowing thirty miles an hour. He is four hundred 

 feet above the surface of a river that is flowing ten miles an hour. 

 Six feet below the surface of the river a fish is swimming with the 

 stream at the rate of twenty-five miles an hour. On account of the 

 refraction of light the fish is two feet away from where he seems 

 to be and it is four o'clock in the afternoon. Don't you think you 

 would rather trust a fish hawk's instinct than your own math- 

 ematics 1 That is just the problem that a baby fish hawk solves as 

 unerringly as its father does. 



A woodpecker must certainly have sharp and strong toes to 

 enable him to cling so easily to the sides of barkless trees. 



It is a rule of nature to discard the useless things. If you will 

 notice a cow's foot you will see that two of its hind toes no longer 

 touch the ground and are little better than warts. The horse has 

 only one toe left upon each foot. If the nighthawk, the swifts and 

 the swallows don't use their feet more, they will soon have feet 

 as small in proportion as those of a Chinese princess. 



Swimming birds are web-footed for they must often pursue 

 their prey even under water. The mergansers can paddle fast 



