16 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 



gait I have ever studied, hopped; and all these birds 

 are short-legged. The shortest-legged Passerines, 

 too, are the Swallows, but these walk when on 

 the ground instead of hopping. Among Cuckoos 

 and Rollers, the practice is more rational, so to speak, 

 for the short-legged species hop, while the longer- 

 legged Ground- Rollers and the magpie-like Bush- 

 Cuckoos, like the Indian Crow-Pheasant (Centropus 

 sinensis), run. Toucans, Barbets, and Woodpeckers 

 all seem to hop, and this about exhausts the list of 

 hopping birds, all of which, it will be noticed, are 

 essentially perchers, so that hopping undoubtedly has 

 something to do with the perching habit. 



Walking-birds, however, may hop when in a 

 hurry, as one may see with Rooks, Starlings, and 

 even Wood-Pigeons, while birds of prey, which 

 normally walk, though but little, hop so readily when 

 " cornered" by a broken wing as to have given rise 

 to the notion that hopping is their natural gait. 

 Conversely hopping birds of the Thrush tribe often 

 take a run for a few feet. Waterfowl have a bad 

 name for clumsiness in walking, and certainly some 

 of the more specialized kinds waddle awkwardly on 

 account of the wide distance between their legs, 

 which is convenient for swimming, but necessarily 

 produces a rolling gait. This also badly handicaps 

 them in perching, which so many of them do, especi- 

 ally in hot climates, for they find it difficult to walk 

 along a small bough ; and in the case of the perching 

 Ducks, the dwarfed hind- toe is of no use for a grip, 

 so much so that I have seen such active species as 



