The Food of Birds 



161 



instantly accept changed conditions and flourish under 

 the new regime. 



As the range of diet of the whole Class of birds is so 

 vast, doubtless the food of the individual species varies 

 more than we should ever suppose, but many instances 

 are recorded of birds regularly feeding on food for whose 



capture they seem very ill adapt- 

 ed. Insects form the staple food 

 of all flycatchers and tyrant- 

 birds, but the Sulphur Tyrant and 

 several others readily devour 

 snakes. They dash down at one 

 of these reptiles, catch it up in 

 their beak, and, flying back to 

 a branch or stone, hammer the 

 snake flail-like, until its life is 

 battered out. Certain small king- 

 fishers living in New Zealand 

 have deserted the habits of their group, and subsist on the 

 remarkable diet of " flies, young birds, and cherries"! 



The change in habits of the Kea Parrot is only too 

 well known, especially to the sheep-raisers in New Zea- 

 land, the home of these birds. Originally exclusive 

 fruit-eaters, they have lately become so fond of the fat 

 from the backs of living sheep that they have developed 

 into ravenous birds of prey, vivisecting their victims and 

 rejecting all but the choicest morsels. Gulls have long 

 been known to enjoy an insect diet, and on the pampas 

 in the vicinity of Buenos Ayres the people look and pray 

 for flocks of gulls as the only relief from the hordes of 



FIG. 124. Texas Kingfisher 

 fishing for insects. 



