S8 Common Snipe 



(ige, is proved by the fact that old and young ahke are equally 

 rm palatable. 



A Snipe's bill is one of the most striking examples of Nature 

 fitting a special organ for a special purpose. It is very long for the 

 size of the bird — 2.5 to 3 inches ; the upper half of the beak 

 (maxillary) is larger than the lower half (mandibular) and ends in 

 a terminal knob. It is grooved on its under surface about ^ inch 

 from the tip to receive the lower half. The bill as a whole is soft 

 and pliable, especially its terminal portion, the extreme tip being 

 hard. Its length shows that it ii intended for use at some depth 

 below the surface, and its t^lialnUtv that the material in which it is 

 employed must be soft. 



But the length and pliability are not in themselves sufficient. 

 As the search for food has to be carried on out of sight, it is necessaiy 

 to supply another sense, that of touch ; and, as a matter of fact, 

 a Snipe's or a Woodcock's bill is exquisitely sensitive. 



If you take a freshly-killed Snipe in your hands, the terminal 

 one-third of the bill appears rather bulbous and swollen, but perfectly 



Fig. 8. 



smooth (Fig. 8). In a few days, the bill dries and shrinks, and you 

 will then see that its distal one-third becomes pitted with a number 

 of minute depressions. Macerate the bill in water, and vou may 

 easily remove the outer skin, when the meaning of those depressions 

 is revealed. The bill is honeycombed with an infinity of hexagonal 

 cells, in which the terminal filam.ents of a sensory nerve ramify, 

 before completing their course in the sensory or tactile corpuscles 

 which are found in the overlying skm. An\' ordinar\' lens will show 

 these cells quite plainly.* These sensor\' fibres are derived from 

 the superior (or ophthalmic) division of the fifth cranial nerve, the 

 great sensory nerve of the face. 



\^^e ourselves are innervated in the same wa\', liv the same 

 sensory, nerve, which serves the eyes, eyelids, forehead and nose. 

 Only in the Snipe famih' the nasal branches are proportic^nateh* 

 much more developed than in ourselves, this being a vital necessit}' 

 in their economy. 



Another morphological point of importance is the position of 

 the eyes. If you examine the skull of a ^^'oodcock or Snipe, the 

 former especially, you will notice that the orbital cavities are set 



* A figure showinf? the tip of the Snipe's bill and the cellular, hexagonal pits, was published 

 in Yarrell's ' British Birds," <jth edition, vol. iii., p. 346. — Editor. 



