Further Notes on Tool-using by Birds 



by A. II I tlisimt U 



Since w fifing on the subject o| lh( 

 use by hirds of tools and plaything? 

 ilia. rVt* »»-. 180). I have come 

 upon other notes that supplement the 

 earlier material: and as these are 

 quite distinctive they appear lo merit 

 prompt recording. 



One note is from my own diary, 

 and therefore should have been recol- 

 lected sooner. In brief, it concerns 

 observations given mc bv Mr. aild 

 Mrs lack Harris of "Conobola". 

 Stuart Town, mid-western N.S.W., on 

 their property in 1%7. During a 

 general discussion of bird behaviour 

 Mr. Han is related that Rainbowbirds 

 ( ,\f,-mp.v) sometimes picked up shin- 

 ing pebbles from a garden path and 

 tossed them in the air; and Mrs. 

 Harris stated that While- winged 

 Choughs often wrenched walnuts from 

 a tree in the household garden and. 

 Hying to the ground, broke them 

 against stones. 



The question arises; Has the 

 Rainbowbirds' curious practice ot 

 toying with bright pehbles any rele- 

 vance to the claim (made, as 

 stated earlier, by another rural resi- 

 dent! thai these hirds sometimes 

 use "natural lamps" — white bones, 

 mussel-shells, etc..— in their nest- 

 burrows'' As for the Choughs actions, 

 they obviously strengthen the evid- 

 ence (cited previously) that these 

 adventurers rank as both primary and 

 secondary tool-users, a tact indicated 

 hy their use of "hammers" to open 

 mussels and by their occasional 

 attempts to break a mussel by holding 

 it in the beak and striking it against 

 a hard piece of wood. 



Incidentally, the smashing of wal- 

 nuts as well as mussels, for the same 

 purpose, gives Choughs the distinction 

 of being lool-users in respect of both 

 vegetable and animal loods An..!. 

 SUtely, tribute is due 10 the birds fui 

 their enterprise in having learned 

 somehow, in each case, thai cdihk 

 mailer lay be-nealh the haul shells. 



The F.KK-Smashw* 



In the earlier article I quoted a 

 statement made by a Svdney n.ilur.i- 

 list. the late A. G. Hamilton, m Ihnh 

 Kamhl,-\ (1937), llvtt "an Africa, 

 eagle" had been known to drop 

 Stand :tn Ostrich eggs. Hamilton did 

 U01 give any authority for this repnrl 

 and I raised a query on the point. 

 Now. it appears, the source may have 

 been a book termed Atiittitfi 

 by J. G. Wood, published in 1S77 

 For. as disclosed ma recent issue 

 of the Journal of the fast Afro. 

 Natural History Society p. 

 2M I. the Egyptian Vulture's habit of 

 breaking Ostrich eggs wilh stones, so 

 heartily "proclaimed as a recent "dis 

 covery". was in fact lecoidcd IP 

 Wood's hook some ninety years 

 earlier 



It is. of course, embarrassingly 

 ea.sv to overlook obscure records on 

 a particular subject; and indeed 

 naturalists need to be diligent reader 

 if they are to keep in touch with 

 material ihat is not obscure but \S 

 published in journals outside theii 

 own country, (Australian ornitho- 

 logical records of significance havc 

 Often been neglected by writers else 



•llintory ItiiiiKu |J3 Mac.iimuc Si. Xyclncv 



342 



Vtoh Nal. Vol 8S 



