io6 



Bird - Lore 



photograph of the Kingfisher with the small sucker on page 109.) Just how 

 the bill is extricated is a mystery to me unless it is done under the water 

 before the bird rises. Perhaps some observer, who has been more fortunate 

 than I, can explain it. 



Others of the fish-eating birds, such as the Loons and Grebes, are expert 

 divers and pursue the fish beneath the water. They have powerful legs with 

 strong webbed or lobed toes, the legs being situated far back like the propeller 

 of a boat so that, although most graceful on the water, they are extremely awk- 

 ward and almost helpless on 

 land. 



The group of insect-eating 

 birds is large and varied, for 

 there are many kinds of insects 

 and many ways of securing them. 

 Some insects live in the soft mud 

 about shores and marshes, and 

 for these the birds must probe; 

 some live among the leaves and 

 harder soil of the forest floor, 

 and for these the birds must 

 scratch. Others live within the 

 trunks and branches of trees, and 

 to secure these the birds must 

 be proficient carpenters supplied 

 with chisels for gouging. Still 

 other insects spend most of their 

 time darting hither and thither 

 in the sunlight and these must 

 be caught on the wing. Lastly, 

 there are those insects that hide 

 in the grass or among the leaves of shrubs and trees, and these must be searched 

 out with keen eyes. And so, among birds, we have probers in the Snipe and 

 Woodcock, scratchers in the Grouse and Quail, borers in the Woodpeckers, 

 flight-feeders in the Swallows, Swifts, and Nighthawks, and gleaners in the 

 Blackbirds, Thrushes, Vireos, and Warblers. In each group of birds we find 

 those modifications of bill, feet, wings, tail, tongue, and eyes which best fit 

 the birds for securing the insects in their particular way. 



Among the vegetable feeders the largest number live upon seeds and are of 

 rather generahzed structure except for their bills which are heavy and conical 

 like those of the well-known Sparrows and carried to the extreme in the Gros- 

 beaks. There are a few birds like our Hummingbirds, the tropical Honey 

 Creepers, and the African Sunbirds which take a large part of their sustenance 

 from the nectar of flowers. These birds have slender, probe-like bills and more 



CANVASBACK (Captive). A THVING DUCK 



Note the relatively short, thick neck and large feet 



placed far back 



