painting a kingfisher, 143 painting of bower, 16 palatability, 63 penguins, maternal, 36 people, birds perching on, 102 pilfering: 104 by grackle, 106 by kingfisher, 105 by shrike, 105 by starling, 105 poison fruit, 31 poisonous birds, 140 poor-will in hibernation, 109 powder down, 26 preening, 25 probe, used by finch, 17 references, 213 retarded development, 137 rhino bird, 128 robbery: by birds, 19,104 by eagle, 19, 20 by frigate bird, 20 by raven, 99 by skua, 21 Rome, founding of, 171 Romulus and Remus as bird watchers, 171 Salvador bird voices, 157 sand grouse carrying water, 178 sea serpents: identification of, 147 in Kenya, 148 in New Guinea, 148 sentinel of the monkey, 53 sewing nests, 89 sexes: battle of, 173 different diets of, 175 sexual differences, ecological significance of, 173 shrike's larder, 60 shrike, young, infantile behavior prolonged, 137 slave of the monkeys, 52 snails, broken on anvil, 15 snakeskins: in nests, 111 as decorations, 112 bibliographic work on use of, 114 reasons for using, 115 theories of use, 113 snowy owl, as trade index, 49 social parasites, 33, 91 soothsayers use birds, 172 sounds produced mechanically, 134 soup, birds'-nest, 38 storage: of acorns, 32 of fish, 33 survival of unfit, 201 swifts' nests, 38-41 symbiosis, 73 tables turned, 198 tailorbirds, 89 tameness, 101 taste in birds, 189 telephone: conversations on, 143, 151 identification over, 160 theft, petty, 104 thrush, breaking snail's shell, 15 tick bird, 128 ticks, food of oxpecker, 128 tolling of ducks, 211 tool, use of, 15 torpidity, 108 trade index, snowy owls as, 49 unfit survive, 201 vegetation and penguins, 183 washing food: 154 reasons for, 156 watchdogs at nests, 121 water: carried by birds, 46, 178 flights to, 178 need of, 177 weaving nests, 88 wing music of owl, 134 wings: use of, 130 in feeding, 131 winnowing of snipe, 134 wisdom, owl, symbol of, 98 young: buried, 45 communistic care of, 37 fed by other young, 81, 203 honey-guide's, 33 independent from hatching, 55 * * * * * Transcriber Note Minor typos corrected.