207


This habit of using the foot as a hand (with the leg

resting on the ground or perch) would thus seem to be common

to various Shrike-like birds ; but it is rather surprising to find

it markedly characteristic of many of the Babblers, as I have

done after studying many species in captivity (b).


In the case of C^'ateropus canorus^ Argya earlii, Garrulax

leucolophus and albigularis, PydoT-his sme7tsis, Lioptila capistrata,

Siva Cyanuroptera, Liothrix hUeus, Mesia argentauris , and y^igi-

thina tiphia, this action was to be remarked, though some of

these birds, at all events, frequently employ the corvine method

of putting the food under the foot simply, and this was specially

the case with Pyctorhis. T^-ochalopterum liJieahun and a species

of Zosterops I kept very seldom used their feet in feeding and

lanthocincla rufigidaris and Po7iiato7'hinus etyihrogenys apparently

not at all, though I thought I saw a sign of this in the last species.


None of the various species of Bulbuls, however, which I

have kept from time to time, have ever shown any disposition to

use their feet in feeding, and in this respect Chloropsis also

agrees with them rather than with its obviously nearer relative

j/Egi7ithma.


Myiopho7ie7LS ie77i7)tinckii, \.]i& only member of the l,7^achyp-

te7ygi7tcs which I have been able to examine in this regard, does

not seem inclined to use its foot ; as indeed one would not

expect it to do, seeing its manifestly close relationship to the

typical Thrushes, Mei'ida and Turdus, which in its gait and

appearance it so much resembles. For the Babblers, when on

the ground, generally move with quite a different action from the

true Thrushes, standing less eredl and progressing by more or

less bounding hops only, without running as a rule. But Argya

earlii appears to be more Thrush-like in its gait than other

Babblers, though typical enough in most respects. The

New Zealand Thrush (Tur7iagra) though somewhat resembling

a Babbler in gait and tail action, does not, according to the

keeper of the Western Aviary at the London Zoological Gardens,

who watched it for me, use its foot in feeding.


These differences between the Babblers and Thrushes

may seem very trivial matters to insist upon, but it must be

remembered that the former group is generally admitted to be a

very difficult one to define, and this habit of using the foot in

feeding, like a Crow or a Shrike, will certainly differentiate most


ibi BU'th, however, as quoted by Jerdoii (Birds of India, vol. IV., pt. I., pp. i6 and

36.) has recorded the use of the foot in feeding by Pyctorhis sinensis and Dryonasfes

sinensis. I haVe alluded to the habit in some of these birds in my papers on the Theory

(Of Warning- Coloration and Mimicry, J. A. S. B., 1895 and 1897. — F. F.



