vI FORM AND FUNCTION 163 
Mr. Beddard mentions that the Great Spotted Wood- 
pecker ate the caterpillar of the Buff-tip moths partially 
after much pecking.! Was this because the conspicuous 
colours frightened him or because the skin was over- 
tough? A Magpie rubbed the hairs off a caterpillar 
before eating it. On the other hand a Gannet swallows 
a mackerel whole. A Cormorant is only troubled bya 
whole fish ifhe happens to swallow him head foremost 
and so get the fins the wrong way. He has been 
known to swallow a Starling with beak and feet and 
everything appertaining to him, and to attempt to 
swallow a young kitten.” The parrot gnaws his food 
carefully like a dyspeptic. The great freedom with 
which his upper beak works enables him to put its long 
curved point to the front margin of the lower beak 
when occasion requires. With this long point he 
scoops out a Brazil nut when he has cracked the shell 
like a piece of shortbread. 
The beak aided by the long and supple neck takes 
the place ofahand. When the forelimbs became wings 
and the former reptile, now a bird, stood comparatively 
"erect on two legs, some form of hand was clearly 
necessary. The parrot uses his feet to lift food to his 
mouth, but most birds know no hand but their beak. 
It is also a weapon of offence, many birds being able 
to give a powerful stroke not unlike that of a snake, 
and far more promptly administered. When some 
members of the Challenger expedition visited Penguin 
“rookeries ” they found they must wear thick gaiters 
1 Animal Coloration, by F. E. Beddard, p. 155. 
2 See The Home of a Naturalist, by the Rev. B. Edmondston, 
Pp. 77: 
M 2 
