diff --git a/lib/http/response/body.rb b/lib/http/response/body.rb
index d3fcf1c9..c0010dd7 100644
--- a/lib/http/response/body.rb
+++ b/lib/http/response/body.rb
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ class Body
       include Enumerable
       def_delegator :to_s, :empty?
 
-      def initialize(client, encoding)
+      def initialize(client, encoding = Encoding::BINARY)
         @client    = client
         @streaming = nil
         @contents  = nil