Snipe. 39 



preceded by a somewhat prolonged pause, 

 during which the bird stood with head 

 lowered and cocked on one side in an atti- 

 tude of listening, just as you may see a rook 

 doing in a field. What chance has the 

 floundering sportsman of escaping detection 

 by a bird to which the stirring of a worm 

 two inches deep in mud is audible ! For the 

 purpose of feeling the morsel invisible below 

 the surface, the extremity of the snipe's bill 

 is furnished with a netted bulb of nerves 

 compared to which the human tongue is but a 

 dull clod for sensitiveness. Only the elephant 

 with his forty thousand trunk muscles can 

 compare with the snipe in delicacy of nose, 

 so that the mighty pachyderm and the tiny 

 bird meet on the ground of extremities as 

 well as extremes ! 



Unlike the woodcock, the snipe is be- 

 lieved never to feed from the surface, even 

 when starving in a frost ; indeed it is doubt- 

 ful whether he could do so rapidly enough 

 to keep himself in condition, owing to the 

 length and awkward shape of his bill. Yet 



