90 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 



known among ground- and water-birds ; no swim- 

 mer practises it, except the Skua Gull, and the 

 common Fowl only in a casual and half-hearted 

 way may put a foot on a piece of cabbage-leaf it 

 is picking at. The Brush-Turkey (Cathe turns lat- 

 hami), however, a less specialized bird, fairly grips 

 its greenstuff ; the habit seems commoner among 

 Australian birds than elsewhere, for I noticed even 

 one of the Honey- eaters, a Miner (Myzantba), hold 

 a grape in this way, and a Fantail Flycatcher (Rhi- 

 pidura tricolor) playfully grasping dead leaves, when 

 these birds were on view at the Zoo. 



The details given above will seem to most orni- 

 thologists hopelessly trivial, but the habit of "using 

 the foot or otherwise is a most important one to 

 a bird ; those not possessing it are always liable 

 to starve or choke, the latter calamity being a very 

 common one among fish-eating birds, whose sup- 

 plies are intermittent, while except in the case of 

 fishing birds of prey they have little notion of 

 dividing their quarry should it prove to be un- 

 manageable. They do what they can by vigorously 

 beating it on their perch in some cases, as in the 

 case of the Kingfishers, and this habit of perch- 

 whacking is also seen among the Bee-eaters and 

 many other birds which do not supplement the bill 

 with the foot. 



Similar is the custom of the Thrush in beating 

 his snails against a stone ; I have seen it do the 

 same thing with a looped-up lob-worm, against the 

 bottom bar of an iron railing, no doubt in order to 



