EVERY-DAY LIFE. 
257 
Birds of prey circle at greater or less elevations over their 
hunting-grounds; Rooks, Crows, Jackdaws, Magpies, 
Jays, Buntings, Larks, Pipits, Thrushes, Blackbirds, 
Starlings, Pigeons, and Partridges, make their way to 
the fields and waste lands; Butcher-birds and Fly¬ 
catchers are on the look out from their favourite post or 
branch; Woodpeckers, Nuthatches, Tree-creepers, Tit¬ 
mice, and Golderests, are now climbing and hopping 
from twig to twig; and all the rest are seeking their 
daily bread in the field and in the wood, amongst the 
bushes, or along the banks of streams. Having received 
the same at the hand of rich and all-bounteous Nature, 
they, one and all, at certain fixed hours, fly off in search of 
the nearest water, and there drink their fill; this done 
they retire by degrees to some quiet spot, where they 
digest their food at leisure. 
The mode of eating and drinking varies much. 
While most birds take their food with the beak, some— 
as, for instance, Parrots and birds of prey—use the feet 
as well; others, like the Woodpeckers and Honeysuckers 
( Meliphaga ), employ the tongue for that purpose. The 
Parrots carry their food gracefully with one foot to 
the beak; birds of prey hold their quarry fast with both 
feet, while some Falcons carefully pluck off the feathers 
before they swallow it; many granivorous birds also 
remove the husk from the seed prior to eating it. Wood¬ 
peckers extract insects from crannies and crevices, 
transfixing them with their tongues, when both tongue 
and prey are drawn back into the bill; the Wryneck 
darts its tongue into an ant’s nest, withdrawing it as 
soon as covered with these insects. Birds provided with 
wide gullets swallow large pieces, or even whole animals 
at once; thus, the Pelicans and Adjutants dispose with 
