5 
claws or teeth in contest with their own species, but birds, for their 
partners, their nests, their hunting grounds, and their personal 
dignity, are nearly always in contention. Their courage is un- 
equalled by that of any other race of animals capable of 
eomprehending danger ; and their pertinacity and endurance have, 
in all ages, made them an example to the brave, and an amusement 
to the base among mankind. Nevertheless, since as sword, as 
trowel, or as pocket comb, the beak of the bird has to be pointed, 
the collection of seeds may be conveniently entrusted to this other- 
wise penetrative instrument, and such foods as can only be 
obtained by probing erevices, splitting open fissures, or neatly and 
minutely picking things up, is allotted pre-eminently to the bird 
species. ’’ In writing especially of the robin’s beak, Ruskin con- 
tinues, ‘‘ You will find that the robin’s beak, then, is a very 
prettily representative one of general bird power. As a weapon, it 
is very formidable indeed; he can kill an adversary of his own 
kind with one blow of it in the throat; and is go pugnacious, 
** valde pugnax,” says Linneus, “ ut non una arbor duos capiat 
erithacos’’ (‘‘no single tree can hold two cock robins ;”) and for 
precision of seizure, the little flat hook at the end of the upper 
mandible is one of the most delicately formed points of forceps 
which you can find among the grain eaters.” 
The bill or beak consists of two parts, the upper and lower 
mandibles, or more accurately ‘the maxilla” which is the upper, 
and ‘‘ the mandible,” the lower part. That part of each which is 
externally visible is an epilermic sheath of horny or sometimes 
leathery consistence, which covers the bony part beneath. The 
‘bony part beneath is a prolongation of the bones which would form 
the nose and upper jaw in man for the maxilla, and the lower jaw 
for the mandible. In most birds this horny sheath, which has a 
long technical name, rhamphotheca, is in one entire piece for each 
jaw, but in some, as in the Petrel, itis « pieced’’ or divided into 
distinct parts by various lines of slight connection. The different 
parts of the bill have received names useful for descriptive pur- 
poses, but not always easy to remember at once hearing them. The 
whole length of the middle line of the upper surface from the tip 
or apex to where the feathers commence on the forehead is called 
the “‘culmen.” This is an interesting word philologically. It is 
-@ contraction of columen, which means ‘that which rises in 
height, is prominent, projects; hence ‘the point, top, summit, 
ridge,” from the root, “cel,” the same as “ celsus ” high, ‘‘ collis ” 
a hill. Hence our word “culminating.” The lateral sharp edge 
of the horny covering of either the maxilla or the mandible is the 
“tomium” from the Greek ‘temno,” I cut. The partwherethe 
jaws meet behind is “the commissure, ” or angle of the mouth, 
