ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY Cornell University Library QL 698.F5 Bird behaviour psychical and physiologic 3 1924 000 048 052 The original of tliis bool< is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924000048052 BIRD BEHAVIOUR YOUNG OF BARN-OWL. Although their white down is very different from the feathers of the old birds these nestlings have the face just like the adult. TYPES OF PHEASANTS. Argus (top left), Golden (top right), Mikado (centre), Silver (bottom), showing different styles of masculine decoration. 'Frouiispii BIRD BEHAVIOUR PSYCHICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL BY FRANK FINN, B.A. (Oxon), F.Z.S. Late Editor of " The Zoologist" AUTHOR or "BIRDS OF THE COUNTRYSIDI," "EGGS AND NESTS OF BRITISH BIRDS," "tui world's birds," nc. " Behold the fowls ol the air."—St. Matthew vi. a6 With 44 Illustrations on Art Paper NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY POINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN — —2 CONTENTS CHAPTER I Importance of subject—Incompleteness of our information about even the commonest species—^Distinction between major and minor habits—General activities or tricks of manner Greater importance of the latter in classification—^Errors to be avoided in observation . , . pp. I- 1 CHAPTER n The locomotion of birds—^Hopping and walking—^Reasons for adoption of these gaits Why waterfowl waddle—Swimming and diving—^Perching and climbing—^Different methods of performing these actions—Specialized birds which have taken to different habits, as Ground-Parrots and Land Geese—Flight and its varieties—Characteristic methods according to group and size—Sailing and soaring flight—Speed . pp. 13-32 CHAPTER HI The nutrition of birds—^Various kinds of food, animal and vege- table—^Methods of and adaptations for obtaining it—Changes of diet—Gluttony of some species—^Power of discrimination among foods, both vegetable and animal—The much-discussed relations of birds to insects, especially butterflies pp. 33-76 —— vi CONTENTS CHAPTER IV Nutrition (continued)—^Manipulation of food—Powers of diges- tion, differing in different groups—The formation of pellets or castings—^Difference in the food of old and young in some cases—Different methods of feeding the young—^Young assist- ing parents in feeding their juniors—Feeding of each other by the sexes—^Drinking, and eating of sucji substances as salt and earth 77~'^^^ ^ • • PP- t CHAPTER V Propagation—Care of young—^Different types of young birds Different modes of feather-development, as seen in young Fowl, Pigeon, or Duck, for instance—^Egg-coloration and its meaning and variations—^Prolificacy and otherwise—Incuba- tion mounds—Periods of incubation . , pp. 1 13-165 CHAPTER VI Propagation (««<»««*(£)—Nest-making not purely a bird-habit Eggs laid without nests—^Xypes of nests—Parasitic nesting —^Parasitic layers, like Cuckoos and Cow-birds—Degrees of development of parasitic instinct . pp. 166-205 CHAPTER VII Migration—^An anciently observed phenomenon still imperfectly understood—Reasons for it—Methods as far as is known Difference between migratory species and the homing Pigeon —Widespread tendency to migration, contrasted with con- tradictory tendency to form localized non-migratory races ending in some cases in Sightlessness, as in some birds of islands remote . , • PP- 206-224 — CONTENTS vii CHAPTER VIII The senses of birds—Sight and its general high development Degree of perception of colonr-^jnfluence of colour, if any, on courtship, and^the segregation ofjpecies—^Perception of the colour in various kinds of fobd—Smell, usually poorly developed—^Exceptions noted—^Acuteness of hearing—Sense of touch—Taste-perceptions . pp. 225-254 CHAPTER IX The emotions of birds-^Mentality higher than is supposed, but variable according to species or g'roups-^Strong- and weak- minded birds—Intelligence and stupidity—The limitations of instinct—Agression of the emotions and its relation to courting d^play«—Love~ and ' sociability—Hatred and re- .venge;—The police instinct—^Monogamy, polygamy, and polyandry—^The problem of preferential mating pp. 255-280 CHAPTER X Song and cries of birds^^Bird-language generally-^Extent to which the notes are instinctively developed—^The instinct of mimicry—Species which can imitate human speech—^Problem of this ability and extent of exercise of the same—^Possibility of understanding of bird-language by man . pp. 281—292 CHAPTER XI Weapons and fighting methods of birds—^Their combats with each other and with various natural enemies—Chief enemies of birds—The passive resistance of birds to unfavourable climate and surroundings—^Natural defences—Perfection and degeaieracy of plumage in this connection—Powder-coating of some groups ...... pp. 293—302 viu CONTENTS CHAPTER XII special instincts of birds—^The play of yonng birds and of adults —Bower-builders and their peculiarities—Ornamentation of nests—The instinct for food-storage in some forms—The practice of piracy—^Toilet and bed-time habits pp. 303-318 CHAPTER XIII Special physiological peculiarities of birds—^Longevity—^Tempera- ture of body—Change of colour in bare skin of some^ such as Turkey—The phenomena of the moult—Gradual change in colour of bill and feet according to age and sex or season —Changes in iris colour—Beak-sheath shedding as in Puffin pp. 319-328 CHAPTER XIV Abnormalities—^Hybrids, their characteristics and power of repro- duction or otherwise—Abnormal plumages, such as albinism or melanism, temporary or permanent—Overgrowth of claws and bill pp. 329-342 CHAPTER XV Relations of birds with men—^Persecuted species—^Parasitic or commensal species—Domestic forms—Introduced forms and the results of introduction .... pp. 343-356 INDEX pp. 357-363 ILLUSTRATIONS Young of Barn-Owl . ILLUSTRATIONS pacing PAGE Lyre-Birds (Male and Female) 54 Imperial Woodpeckers BouRu Friar-Bird . BouRu Oriole, showing resemblance to Friar- Bird ..... t Young Hoatzin ..... Brush-Turkey ..... OvEN-BiRD ...... Concave-Casqued Hornbill Brazilian Hang-Nest Types of Pensile Nests Nest of Central-American Swift GuACHAROS AND NeST Flamingo on its Nest SWIFTLETS AND THEIR NesTS Hawk-Cuckoo or " Brain-Fever Bird " Shikra Hawk American King-Bird King-Crow African Ja9AnX . Cuban Trogon . Gardener Bower-Bird with its Bower Newton's Bower-Bird Hybrid between Golden Pheasant and Fowl Herring Gulls ...... — BIRD BEHAVIOUR CHAPTER I Importance of subject—Incompleteness of our information about even the commonest species—^Distinction between major and minor habits—General activities or tricks of manner Greater importance of the latter in classification—Errors to be avoided in observation. The study of birds is often looked down upon by- general zoologists as a trifling pursuit, and the reason of this is not far to seek ; what is called zoology nowadays is for the most part the study of com- parative anatomy, and from this point of view birds are of extremely small interest ; they are remarkably uniform in their general structure, and such varia- tions of note as do occur are chiefly confined to a few flightless families, such as Ostriches and Pen- guins. One need not, indeed, be an anatomist to realize the comparatively small structural interest of birds ; a bird is at once and by everybody recognized as such, while among the mammals, their rivals in high development, one gets such extraordinarily different types as whales, mice, bats, horses, lions, I 2 BIRD BEHAVIOUR and men, most of which differ from each other more than the earliest known bird, the Archaofteryx of Jurassic times, does from the modern Sparrow in the back-garden. On the other hand, t^e numerous species and families of birds and their close alliance with each other afford, by this very narrow range of differentia- tion, an attractive and philosophical study ; among them survive types which in mammals have become " missing links " or are only discoverable in the fossil state. In fact, it is the survival of so many connecting forms that makes it so difficult to group the families of birds into larger " orders," a difficulty which only occurs with mammals when we look back among their fossil predecessors preserved among the rocks. We look, for instance, with interest upon the remains of the various ancestral predecessors of the horse family, as exhibited in museums, and try to realize what changes of habit must have occurred to convert a small animal with paws into a large one with a single hoofed toe on each foot. But among the birds, if we go to the Duck family {Anatidee) we find still in existence practically all the links .between a light-bodied, large-winged bird with non-waterproof plumage and half-webbed feet with large grasping hind-toe, and almost exclusively aquatic diving Ducks which rival the Grebes and Cormorants in their subaqueous per- formances, and exhibit almost as much modification of structure. And the habits of these can be DUCKS AND EVOLUTION 3 studied, for they are not only living, but accessible ; the semi-wader at the beginning of the series, the Australian Magpie-Goose"^ (Anseranas semipalmata) is no rarity, and I have spent much time in study- ing a full-winged specimen at Kew, while the habits of many others of the family exemplifying the gradations I have mentioned are accessible either to direct observation or to any one who can look up bird literature. In fact, the Duck famUy is one of the most inter- esting of all animal groups for any one interested in biological problems, owing to the wide distribu- tion of its members, their essential