2o6


ON CERTAIN IMPERFECTLY KNOWN POINTS IN


THE HABITS AND ECONOMY OF BIRDS.


By F. Finn, B.A., F.Z.S.,


Deputy Superintendent of the Indian Museum.


(Continued from page i6§J.


ON THE USE OP THE FEET FOR PREHENSION BY CERTAIN


PASSERINE BIRDS, ESPECIALLY BABBLERS.


Considering the perfect organization of the feet of

Passerine birds for grasping, it is somewhat astonishing that

so many of them appear to have no notion of using these

members for holding their food, or for transporting any object,

after the manner of Birds of Prey.


It would appear, however, that our common Crow fCorvus

splendens) does occasionally do the latter, for I have on two or

three occasions seen one flying with a stick or other nesting

material in its foot, thus imitating a Kite {a).


Curiously enough, Kites themselves frequently carry

nesting material in their beaks, though food is carried by them

in the feet.


Among Passerine birds other than Crows, I have seen a

"Brown Shrike (Lanius crisatusj, in the Museum compound,

■carry off in its foot a dragon-fly on which it was preying when

disturbed ; and a King-crow (Dicrurus ater) in a large com-

partment in one of the aviaries of the Aliphore Zoological

Oardens similarly transported a butterfly I had given it, when

persecuted by other birds which wanted the insect. I have also

noticed that Bhimrajs ( Disseniurus paradiseus J which I have kept,

■when disturbed with food in their foot, will still thus retain it

when shifting their position.


This habit of grasping the food in one foot is just as

-characteristic of the Drongos as of the true Shrikes, judging

from what I have seen of Disseniurus paradiseus and Dicrurus

<iter ; I have even seen the latter bird apparently trying to eat

something from its feet in the air. Chibia hottentotta appears

also to grasp its food with its foot when feeding, at times. I

have distincftly seen recently a Piping-crow ( Gyni7iorhina ) both

grasp its food with its foot like a Shrike and put it under one

foot like a Crow, in quick succession.


(a) Our British Carrion Crow certainly often carries its prey in its foot. On one

occasion I saw a pair carrying off even goslings in this way. The Raven commonly uses

its pouch and bill— the former for food, the latter for other articles. Speaking from

memory, the following have carried small birds for short distances in their foot in my

aviary— The Wandering Tree-pie, and the Hunting Cissa ; also probably some of three

species of Blue-Pie — Urocissa sinensis, occipitalis, and ma^niiosttis.- — R. P.



