. The story of the birds; . earing directly on feeding habits, are the strongchisel-pointed straight beak and the long protruding,horn-tipped and barbed tongue, especially coveredwith slime. The beak is also much stiffened, and thetongue, besides being slimy to hold the grub, is so setthat it may be durtedfcw out with great force to pierceit. Our flickers feed on the ground partly, digging forants and using the tongue for capture, and the nearkin of the woodpeckers, the wrynecks, pick up alltheir living this way. If the woodpecker change hishabit his beak may change with him, since the earth-d
. The story of the birds; . earing directly on feeding habits, are the strongchisel-pointed straight beak and the long protruding,horn-tipped and barbed tongue, especially coveredwith slime. The beak is also much stiffened, and thetongue, besides being slimy to hold the grub, is so setthat it may be durtedfcw out with great force to pierceit. Our flickers feed on the ground partly, digging forants and using the tongue for capture, and the nearkin of the woodpeckers, the wrynecks, pick up alltheir living this way. If the woodpecker change hishabit his beak may change with him, since the earth-digging flickers beak is not especially chisellike, butsharp pointed and curved down. i[ature may compensate by special habits formany deficiencies of special tools. The imperfectionof a tool may set up a new task or lighten one. Toillustrate : Both woodpeckers and nuthatches nest inholes. The former opens his by splintering all thewood into a solid tree away, but a nuthatch withhis poor beak makes punctures in a circle, and. 150 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. cuts a bnng-sliaped piece out of tlie side of somecavity; the woodpecker rarely uses a knothole for abeginning; but the nuthatch (European) may j^laster up with mud a (too large) natural opening or (American) enlarge one to suit. Out the other way, beyond the owls, runs another group of birds that are mostly insect eat- Tlie head of nutluitch. n • i • i x n ers, nymg by night usually, asthe whip-poor-will, night hawks, etc. Some of thelower forms, like the owls, eat mice, but normallythey are all provided with broad deep gapes, andsome have hairlike feathers on each side to broadentheir aim in catching flying things in the gloom. Close akin to these are the swifts, with similarhabits by day, and out from these, with similar wings,comes the hummingbirds. These get a mixed dietof insects and honey, and doubtless got their hum-ming habits because flowers were too weak for themto perch upon. In them the beak, like that of theApte
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1897
