426 Manual of the Game Birds of India. 



mandible, without opening the whole bill 

 The two mandibles thus become a very 

 serviceable pair of forceps. When a 

 Snipe, therefore, finds a worm, the tip 

 of the upper mandible is raised, and 

 the worm seized and drawn out. 



The tip of the upper mandible is raised 

 by means of a pair of muscles attached 

 to some of the bones of tiie jaw. If a 

 freshly-killed Snipe, or a wounded bird, 

 be taken, and its jaws slightly squeezed 

 together, laterally, by a pressure of a finger 

 and thumb, the tip of the upper mandible 

 can be raised and closed as often as 

 required, and the whole process of seizing 

 a worm can thus be witnessed. The tip 

 of the upper mandible can be raised 

 about a quarter of an inch.* 



The Snipes may be divided into three 

 groups : — 



Wood-Cocks. — The sexes alike; the 

 bill straight, the terminal portion pitted 

 with small depressions ; the marks on the 

 crown of the head transverse ; the primaries 

 marked with notches of rufous ; the bill 

 much longer than the tarsus. 



* For a fuller explanation of this singular 

 formation of the Snipe's bill, the reader is 

 referred to an interesting paper on the subject 

 by Mr. W. P. Pycraft, in the Ibis (1893, P- 3^1 )• 



