Digital heart book

I
watched one the other day with a mussel in his bill; he flew to a high
tree, let his prey fall, and immediately darted down to secure it; but I
drove him off, and, to my great amusement, perceived the wise fellow had
just let it fall on a stone, which had cracked the shell for him just in
the right place. I often see shells lying at the foot of trees, far up
the hills, where these birds must have left them. There is one large
thick-shelled mussel, that I have found several times with a round hole
drilled through the shell, just as if it had been done with a small auger,
doubtless the work of some bird with a strong beak."
"Do you remember," said Catharine, "the fine pink mussel-shell that Hec.
picked up in the little corn-field last year; it had a hole in one of
the shells too; [Footnote: This ingenious mode of cracking the shells of
mussels is common to many birds. The crow (_Corvus corone_) has been long
known by American naturalists to break the thick shells of the river
mussels, by letting them fall from a height on to rocks and stones.


Pages:
105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129