food. It needs but to watch this bird 

 gathering his supper of pine seeds to 

 convince one of Nature's wise provision 

 in what at first seems deformity. Verily 

 "Things are not what they seem." 



The very large, apparently incom- 

 modious bill of the Toucan is found to 

 be nicely adapted to his purpose. These 

 birds are remarkable for the habit of 

 regurgitation, and the large bill answers 

 as a sort of food reservoir, a second 

 stomach as it were. The great length 

 of the bill enables the bird to reach 

 conveniently the fruit that dangles from 

 the twigs on the higher branches of the 

 trees, since they could not in consequence 

 of their weight alight near the fruit — 

 somewhat the same theory that accounts 

 for the long neck of the Giraffe. The 

 large bill of the Pelican also serves 

 as a food reservoir. 



I doubt if many people have looked at 

 that long-legged, long-necked bird, the 

 Flamingo, without having their wonder 

 excited because of the singular shape of 

 its bill. It seems to have met with some 

 serious accident which bent its bill thus 

 out of shape. But an acquaintance with 

 the feeding habits of the bird removes 

 all wonder from our mind for we dis- 

 cover here a remarkable adaptation. In 

 taking its food the Flamingo reverses 

 the ordinary position of its head, using 

 the upper mandible to scoop up its food 

 somewhat in the same way that the 

 ditcher uses his hoe, but I wish to con- 

 fine this discussion more particularly to 

 our home birds. 



The Nighthawk has no bill at all to 

 speak of nor does it need one. With its 

 wide gape, as it darts and soars about 

 in the upper air, it soon gathers in its 

 supper of gnats and flies. It is interest- 

 ing to note in this connection that sur- 

 rounding this bird's gape are numerous 

 stiff bristles which stand out funnel-like 

 evidently to direct its prey into the gape, 

 and so facilitate food-getting. 



But let us notice some other parts of 

 the bird. Few people realize the irn- 

 portant part that a bird's tail plays in 

 the life of the bird. It is to the bird 

 what the rudder is to the ship, and more. 

 It is used to change the direction of 

 flight. When the bird alights the tail 



is spread to let him down easily. When 

 he is perched the tail answers as a sort 

 of balance pole. And in different birds 

 with its various modifications it answers 

 a number of purposes. The Woodpecker 

 props himself up on the trunk of a tree 

 with his tail and we find the same nice- 

 ly adapted for the purpose, the feathers 

 being stiff and pointed. The Cormorant, 

 a bird with a long body and with the 

 legs very far below the middle of the 

 body, in order to balance himself, stands 

 almost erect and rests himself on his 

 tail; hence his tail is like that of the 

 Woodpecker. 



Some tails are long and others are 

 short, and some birds have no tail at 

 all worth mentioning. This is particu- 

 larly true of the Auks and Grebes — 

 water birds that know none of the uses 

 that tails are put to. Other things be- 

 ing equal the perching birds will have 

 the most largely developed tails. 



Few birds present so many promi- 

 nent examples of adaptation as are 

 found in the Woodpecker, for the rea- 

 son that his habits are peculiar, various, 

 and fixed. So it is not strange that his 

 tongue should be found to be stiff and 

 pointed — a tongue with which he is bet- 

 ter able to procure on a dead treetop a 

 nice supper of beetles and larvae. 



The Sapsucker's tongue is covered 

 with numerous hair-like projections, 

 which are put out against the tree and 

 serve as so many little troughs to lead 

 the sap on to the tongue. 



The principle of adaptation finds ex- 

 pression even in the eyes of birds. Those 

 birds that are active in the lighter part 

 of the day have small eyes. Birds of 

 prey, however, have large eyes because 

 they need keener sight. 



The Owls, Nighthawk, and other 

 birds of nocturnal habits, have large 

 eyes — eyes with exceedingly large pupils 

 — especially adapted for seeing in the 

 dark. It is interesting to note further 

 that these same birds have soft, fluffy 

 feathers and very large wings, which 

 give them an almost noiseless flight and 

 enable them to come close to their prey 

 without being heard. This is certainly 

 a very kind provision of Nature, as 

 these birds, even with their good eyes, 



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