The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-07-18

four toes each of it's front three the
It drinks chicken squeals pig
vegetables anything handy, Verify
it is patchwork
USEFUL TOOLS OF BiRDLAND
Feathered Beaks They
Build, Fight.
wonder what we would do if stood feet
with hands tied securely behind and told
must find food ourselves
from enemies and perform all the without the
use OF those extremely handy exrenities We would find
helpless is just
birds have to do but they provided with useful instr
ment not given to the bill bea With this they
build the intricate prepare variety Of
foods, defend themselves in different and
care for their delicate pumage which alone would to
need all sorts of instruments keep its glossy order
The Parrots Beak and What He Does With 1t.
The big bea of the is wonderful tool Both
and lower mandibes jaws hinged skull thus
surfing hexiblity. Only par
ticles Of food be swallowed by his bea
is provided with like which
files to grind and pulverze the hardest foods.
The muscles of parrots beak stronger than
eagle. macaw, variety parrot,
thru wire nails easily we ginger
bread In climbing the bill is quite freely the
parrots maps hanging
by Of tree which,
point of view, does not restfu attitude for
slumber
The
dextery with which they husk sunfower seeds
How the kea Became Of Prey.
An interesting this diet is the
of the ea parrots in New Zealand Years ago sheep
introduced into that country the parrots driven
by storms from the mountainous the low pasture lands
where they acquired taste for the fat of sheep SKINS
hung up o dry supply exhausted
they the live animals became yeritabe
to sheep raises From harmless they
grown prey. BIRDS
ing thru the wool and flesh of sheep with their fierce bea
kill it in a very short time
The Woodpecker's Drill.
Woodpeckers, with whom all familiar, belong to
general division of birds the parrots Their bills
however are very different Their long sharp pointed drills
backed muscles penetrate into the burrows Of
boring insects and provide dainty meal
for their They drill their homes out of trees with
beaks with rapidity precision The giant
vorbled woodpecker of the southern states often rips off
chips four or five inches In what way can
awakened early morning in than by the
extracted woodpecker from natures
sounding board, tree trunk? No drum-beat is half
musical.
many you hide
a morsel of food When no other bird is looking
it beneath piece of conceal the spot with
in almost motion of the beak with dextery that
Slight artist might well envy.
When pelican has his bill the rest of his body is
almost hidden behind it. The under mandble is very
preparing it be stretched
into big oval shaped SCOOP
bill perfectly needle pointed
The trigger his neck bones snapped when
is with unerring aim the fish is speared
The fish eating duck but he does not
engu his prey like the bird pelican His
provided with sharp backward curved projections which
look like teeth In this of pincers the slip
perry eel is helpless
Birds Which Carry straners
ducks s1ainers sleeves the edges of the
which sand and mud filters and in which
and insects caught. The farnngo has such
his beak differs all others in being bent
downward halfway to the tip that the head must be
upside in sitting the the Were
famingo attempt other birds it could
pick anything.
The bills of the innumerable small birds are many
shapes used for different purposes Two
difference show the diverse eating habits
Those that seeds have stout concal
cracking huing while that feed
soft fruit usually slender
nipple Little Chronicle.