362 SNIPES. 



soft and pulpy, and endowed with an exquisite sense of touch. 

 In many species the bill is further provided with a peculiar 

 muscle, which expands the sensitive apex of the upper mandible, 

 and enablics the bird, with its bill buried in the ground, to seize 

 prey the moment it is felt. From this peculiar mode of searching 

 for their food, many species of snipes, the woodcock, &c., have 

 been called birds of suction. The distribution of the Scclopacidai 

 is very general; their powers of flight are considerable, and they 

 are all more or less migratory in their habits. They incubate upon 

 the ground ; the eggs are four in number, of a peculiar form, being 

 small and pointed at one end, large and obtuse at the other; and 

 they are usually placed in the nest in a circle, with the acute ends 

 meeting in the centre, so as to occupy as small a space as possible. 

 The flesh of many is in high estimation. The Scolopacida; are for 

 the most part moderately sized birds, and many closely resemble 

 each other in colour and conformation. Most have a double moult 

 and the change of plumage in some of them is very marked. Se- 

 veral associate in winter in large flocks, others are more or less 

 solitary. They are very closely allied to the plovers in their 

 structure and anatomy, but differ from those birds in their more 

 lengthened bill, slender shape, more aquatic habits, and mode of 

 coloration. Among themselves, they might almost be said to 

 form a continuous series graduating into each other, with various 

 modifications of the bill as to its length, strength, hardness, and 

 shape. In some it is short, as in the tringa, it is curved in the 

 curlews, soft in the snipes, and moderately hard in the sandpipers. 

 This family comprehends the Godwits, the Longshanks, the 

 Avocets, the Sandpipers, the Snipes proper, and the Phalaropes. 



Siib-Fainily I. 



THE GODWITS. LIMOSIN/E. 



General Characteristics.— Bill generally long, slender, entirely curved or straight 

 from the base, with the sides more or less grooved towards the tip, which usually 

 overlaps that of the lower mandible, and is obtuse; the nostrils basal, and placed 

 longitudinally in the lateral groove ; the wings long and pointed ; the tail usually 

 short and even ; the tarsi lengthened and slender ; the toes long, the lateral ones 

 united at the base to the middle toe, tlic hind toe short, and sometimes wanting. 



The Godwits are birds of a considerable size. They inhabit 

 marshes and the banks and mouths of rivers, where the muddy 



