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Show SEEM AWKWARD IN MOVEMENT Bird Lover Points Out Varying Gait of Feathered Creatures Seeking Food on Ground. W:itcli a bhiokhird hunting for worms on a lawn ; he moves by hop-Ping. hop-Ping. But watch the wagtail dartlnc about on the lawn or following the plow, or hunting down by the streamside he walks or runs. He glides as smoothly over the rough furrows fur-rows of the field as if he were skating on thin ice. So graceful are his movements move-ments that he seems to be dancing. Why some birds should thus h j after their prey and others ran is a curious problem, observes a writer in roarson's Weekly. A solution may be found in the different life habits of the hoppers and runners and in the different habits of their prey. To hop on n lawn after worms may be the best way to disturb and pounce upon them. But it would be better to run after low-flying winged insects. Walkers and runners as a rule are. birds who seek their food on the ground and live chiefly on the ground. Tartridges and landrails are famous runners. Rooks, larks, meadow pipits and starlings live much on the ground, and walk and run. Hoppers, as a rule, are passerines birds with claws adapted to perching. It is natural for them to hop about trees, and so they hop when they come to ground. There are some exceptions excep-tions to the hopping habits of tree birds; thus the wood pigeon is a trco bird that walks. A walking bird, like a starling, may occasionally hop, and the usual hopping hop-ping of the thrush may break into a. ' quick run. Other birds will not either walk, run or hop if they can help it like swifts, who rarely touch ground at all. |