SHELDRAKE 



114 SPRING 



sand-martin, for the feeding habits of the three birds are 

 absolutely dissimilar ; and yet they are all successfully turned 

 to the work of delving in its season. The puffin has the 

 strangest beak of the whole party, and indeed of all British 

 birds. It is a liberal organ at all seasons ; but the male bird 

 adds in the spring an exaggerated horny sheath like the false 

 noses sold to children in toyshops. The Scottish fishermen 

 ■ • '•■' r || call the bird the ' coulter- 



v\ ....mBSfk^j^. neb,' and it might be 



supposed at first sight 

 that the additional beak 

 is designed by nature as 

 a positive aid to the bird 

 in digging his nuptial 

 chamber and nursery. It 

 is much more probable, however, that it is purely an adorn- 

 ment, acquired at the breeding season, like the crest of the 

 green cormorant, or the ornaments of many other birds at 

 the same season. The puffin also assumes at breeding-time 

 a tag of coloured skin on the eyes, which is certainly of no 

 help to it in digging its burrow ; and this is an additional 

 indication that the enlarged bill has no practical purpose of 

 this kind. 



One of the cleverest feats of nesting birds is to fix a 

 foundation in unlikely places and of unpromising material. 

 When they laboriously pile up their nests under the eaves or 

 on the rafters of the cowshed, the martin and swallow at 

 least use a naturally adhesive substance. But the dipper 

 will make its nest cling to the slightest hollow in the face 

 of a rock by a stream, though it builds the foundation of no 

 more cohesive a substance than wet moss. The nest when 

 perfect seems partly to depend for its security on the prin- 



