132 



THE INFANCY OF ANIMALS 



up the bones by gripping them between the fingers and 

 gnawing off the last remaining fragments of flesh. Now 

 when this bone happened to be the " drumstick " of a 

 "spring" chicken, it must have been a common experience to 

 find the end of this drumstick suddenly loose in the mouth. 

 In such an event, no doubt, it would have been speedily 



SKELETON OF THE WING AND LEG (RIGHT-HAND FIGURE) OF 

 YOUNG BIRD. 



rejected, without even a thought of " links with the 

 past ! " Having discarded some of the more barbaric 

 customs of our forbears, we are not likely to make the 

 acquaintance of this unexpected link in similar fashion, 

 but a mere touch of the knife and fork at the end of this 

 bone, the " drumstick," or shank-bone, will discover what 

 they too found. 



