METHODS OF HUSKING SEEDS 87 



habit crops up here and there ; I have seen at 

 the Zoo the small Red-billed African Hornbill 

 {Lofhoceros erythrorhynchus) cracking canary - seed 

 with its great clumsy bill, though it was not very 

 successful in rejecting the husk, and swallowed some 

 of this as well as the grain. It is interesting, too, 

 to offer monkey-nuts to Sea-gulls and Curassows, 

 and see how they deal vnth this unknown food by 

 crunching the brittle shell and then dropping it on 

 the ground to pick up the disclosed nuts ; it evi- 

 dently only needs a little more skill to make them 

 efficient seed-shellers. 



Some birds, without strength of bill to crack 

 seed, get over the difficulty by holding it down 

 with their feet, and splitting it with the bill ; this 

 is particularly characteristic of the Tits, and thus, 

 I find, a Hooded Crow manipulates a monkey-nut. 



It is, of course, quite the usual custom of Tits 

 and Crows to use their feet in holding any article 

 of food which they need to divide, and in accord- 

 ance with the general practice of birds which thus 

 behave, they do not swallow their food in huge 

 mouthfuls, but rather the reverse. Crows, indeed, 

 may often be seen to gulp, apparently, large lumps ; 

 but these are in reality only pouched beneath the 

 tongue, to be afterwards disgorged and torn up. 



The habit of using the foot or feet when feeding 

 is a comparatively uncommon one, and generally 

 restricted to perching birds ; it is very familiar 

 and most perfectly developed among the Parrots, 

 which hold up their food to their mouth in quite a 



