102 



STIiUCTUUE AXD COMPAlilSON. 



made for tearing food, the parrot's for crushing it, and the 

 cross-bill's for reaching into out-of-the-way crevices, and that 

 the hawk's beak is really far less like a parrot's, for example, 

 than it is like a shrike's, whose habits are more like the 

 hawk's. 



Fig. 30. Bills of n) Frigate Bird, (2) Hawk, C') Shrike, (*> Vireo, 



AND (^) BlUEIIIRD. 



Of the compressed bills, — that is, those that are very deep 

 but thin, — the puffin's is a prominent example; but even odder 

 is the l)ill of the ani, or tick-eater, a bird sometimes seen in 

 Florida, which is thinner for its height than the puffin's, and 

 more rounded at the tip. The bird is a relative of the cuckoos, 

 and, as its name shows, gets part of its food by eating the 



