SNIPE-LIKE BIRDS 3 
The only birds that we have to consider in this con- 
nection belong to the snipe family, which may be sep- 
arated into several groups. All snipe-like birds have 
long bills usually covered with a sensitive skin, which 
is soft throughout and furnishes to the bird a useful 
organ of touch. While the bill is long, it is never wide 
—though in one or two cases expanded at the tip; the 
nostrils are short, narrow slits. The toes are usually 
four, though in two or three cases there are but three. 
Usually they are separated, but in a few species they are 
palmated or semi-palmated. The neck and legs are usu- 
ally long and the legs seldom feathered down to the 
tarsal joint. Most of the birds belonging to this family 
are of small size, but occasionally, as in the curlews, the 
birds are as large as a small domestic fowl. 
Snipe and sandpipers are exceedingly gregarious, 
traveling in flocks whose numbers can hardly be 
counted. This makes them especially subject to danger 
from gunners, and the birds being gentle and unsus- 
picious may often return to the decoys over and over 
again after being shot at. Over-shooting and lack of 
enforced protection has almost put an end to the shore- 
bird shooting on a great part of the Atlantic coast. 
Snipe-like birds usually build in or near marshy 
places or by water, and as a rule lay four eggs. The 
voice is a shrill, but often sweet, whistle, readily imi- 
tated and used to lure the birds to decoys. Ornitholo- 
gists state that there are about ninety well-marked 
species of these birds, which are divided into five 
groups, the first containing the woodcock and snipe, the 
