The domestic habits of birds / [Anon].

  • James Rennie
Date:
1833
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The domestic habits of birds / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/407 page 2
    be seen ^thus trimming themselves. A short time after they are able to open their eyes, while the down which covers them when hatched has not begun to be replaced by feathers, we have, in nu- merous instances, seen them turning round their heads and going over all the tiny bits of down and the ends of the sprouting feathers within their reach. This might be plausibly supposed to be ra- ther the mother’s task, and it is usually so stated in books ; but though the mother is very attentive, as we shall presently see, to every species of cleanliness. Providence has ordered that so important a circum- stance should not be left wholly to her care. Those who have not an opportunity of verifying ouf remark in the case of nestling birds, may readily observe the same thing in domestic animals. Cats, for ex- ample, are very assiduous in cleaning the fur of their kittens, for which purpose their rough tongue is ad- mirably adapted : but a kitten, like the nestling bird, when only a few days old, may be seen dressing itself assiduously; and as soon as it can run about, it will even endeavour to clean its dam. This cir- cumstance we never observed among young birds and their mothers; though it is by no means un- common among rabbits, horses, and other domestic quadrupeds. Mutual assistance in cleaning is even given by individuals not of the same family, as may be seen in horses dressing each other’s necks ; and Wilson relates an instanoe of the same thing in the case of two birds, not even of the same species, in his inimitable account of the blue jay {Gar?'ulus cristatusj Brisson). An individual of this species, which had been caught in the woods, was put into the same cage with an orchard oriole {Icterus spurius, Bonaparte), who at first received the new- comer with no little jealousy; but this all Vanished in a few hours, and they lived together in good humour.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3