Could any creature be more beautifully equipped for its
journey through the fields of air?
Then this soft, warm, light dress is renewed once or twice a year,
generally so gradually that the change is imperceptible--but you may have
seen fowls and ducks straggling about the farmyard with half their feathers
gone--on the principle of being off with the old coat before they are on
with the new.
The eyes of both fishes and birds have an extra lid formed of very thin
skin, which can be moved quickly over the surface of the eye, serving to
cleanse it and protect it.
There are three thousand distinct kinds of birds, but it would be
impossible to learn about so many, they have been divided into five
groups--birds of Prey, Perching birds, Scratching birds, Wading birds, and
Swimming birds.
I must tell you that Chrissie and Sharley and May had learnt something
about these groups from a book of which they are very fond; it is called
_The First Year of Scientific Knowledge_, and there are pictures in it of
the different birds, beasts, and fishes which are mentioned.
Now, let us think of some of the birds in the first group. Birds of Prey
are those which hunt for their food, and eat the flesh of other birds,
or of small animals, such as rats, and mice, or of snakes. All these
birds--vultures, hawks, owls--have sharp hooked beaks, and long claws, also
very sharp; they fly quickly, and soon overtake their prey, whether they
hunt by day or by night.
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