212 AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



In the matter of examining the peculiar mechanism of the distal extrem- 

 ity of the superior mandible however, the opportunity was taken advan- 

 tage of to the fullest extent, and the observations of others on this sub- 

 ject fully confirmed. It would seem, however, that an anatomical exami- 

 nation of the parts involved, and a research into the physiology of the 

 function of the curvature of the distal end of the upper jaw in any of the 

 true snipe family would not altogether be lacking in interest. For a long 

 time I was under the impression that the well known ornithologist of this 

 country, Mr. Gurdon Trumbull, a member of the American Ornithologists' 

 Union, was the first to publish an account of this power of the woodcock 

 to curve the end of its superior mandible when seizing its food in the soft 

 mire of the bog or marsh, and I so stated in a recent article of mine on 

 "Woodcocks of the Old World" (Shooting and Fisting, Vol. XXX, No. 9, 

 New York, June 13, 1901, p. 164.), but I find now I was in error. Pro- 

 fessor Alfred Newton of England, upon reading my article in Shooting and 

 Fishing, kindly furnished me with the following information on the sub- 

 ject. This distinguished authority states that "Mr. Trumbull was by no 

 means the first to notice the flexibility of the upper mandible in Scolopaci- 

 dce, and the muscular mechanism seems never to have been properly de- 

 scribed. In 'Exploration Scientifique de I'Algerie' — Oiseaux ii. pi. 9 bis 

 figs. 3, 40, the muscles etc. are delineated in the "Becassean Guignatee" 

 [qu. Actitis hvpoleucusf] but there is no description of the apparatus in 

 the text I can find, though under Scolopax rusticula the fact is mentioned 

 (ii p. 293). This work bears 1867 on the title page, but the plate was 

 published, I believe, many years before, perhaps in 1857, and the text 

 was printed about the same time." 



"R. Hill in Proc. Acad, Phida. 1864 (p. 65) notices the power of 

 inflexion possessed by "£?/^ ^/&ws," but a subsequent note (p. 68 note) 

 makes it likely that he had some species of Niimemius before him. Beck- 

 man treated of this subject in 5. rusticula, Zool. Garten, 1865 (pp. 130-133, 

 figs. I-IV) and it is again referred to in the volume for 1867 (pp. 445-448), 

 Journ. f. Ornith., 1867, pp. 110-112 and Ibis 1868 (p. 109) as well 

 as in Hoffman's Monograph (Die Waldschaeffe, 186, ed. 2, 1887). The 

 matter needs further investigation, which it well deserves." This com- 

 munication of Professor Newton's was dated at Magdalene College, 

 Cambridge, England, June 25, 1901, and is a very helpful bibliographical 

 notice of the subject. It will not however be touched upon further in 

 this place, whatever the writer may do with it anatomically in the future. 



To return to the live specimen here being described, it was very inter- 

 esting to watch it as it cautiously skulked through the long grass in my 

 yard, or stalked among the more open places where the flowers grew. 

 Many of its motions were doubtless the same as those it went through in 





