262 
BIRD-LIFE. 
or dusty spot, we find places where they indulge in 
basking and dusting, and these are rarely without 
visitants at the proper hour. The bathers lie either with 
the whole or half the body embedded in the sand, and, 
by rapidly flapping their wings, raise a cloud of dust, 
when they open out their feathers, so as to allow of the 
loose particles finding their way between them. The feet 
are also sometimes used to throw dust over the body, but 
by whichever method the operation is performed the 
whole body is thoroughly and effectively dusted. This 
performance appears to afford birds the greatest pleasure ; 
they will often remain for half an hour or more in their 
basking places, and sometimes for many minutes perfectly 
motionless. The bath over, they get on their legs again, 
shake their feathers, flap their wings, scratch themselves 
with their feet, and re-arrange their feathers with the 
beak. Winter snow supplies the place of dust. Some 
birds—take, for example, Finches and Sparrows—bathe in 
water as well as sand; the sole use of the sand-bath 
being to destroy the parasites with which birds are often 
infested. 
The water-bath is taken in a variety of ways. Many 
species bathe frequently, others less often; some just 
sprinkle their plumage, while others wet themselves so 
thoroughly as to be scarcely capable of flying after the 
bath is finished. Land birds select a gently shelving 
place when they enter the water, and by fluttering their 
wings envelope themselves in a thick cloud of spray; 
they also hastily dip some of their feathers in the water 
itself. With aquatic birds washing takes place in the 
water itself. 
After the bath the toilet begins. The land bird flies 
for this purpose to the nearest tree, shakes the worst of 
