WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS 



consequence of the sloping projections, by means of which 

 the bird is enabled to hold worms and snails. No bill but 

 that of a crossbill could cut and divide the strong fir-cones 

 from which it extracts its food. The common woodpecker 

 bores holes with its strongly tipped wedge-shaped bill in 

 the hard beech-trees, with a precision and regularity not 

 to be excelled by the best carpenter; while with its long 

 worm-liketongueitdartsuponandcatches thesmall insects 

 which take refuge in the chinks and crevices of the bark. 

 The swallows, who catch their insect prey while flying at 

 speed in the air, are provided with large wide-opening 

 mouths, which enables them to capture the swiftest flying 

 moth or midge. 



In fact, if we take the trouble to examine the manner 

 of feeding and the structure of the commonest birds, which 

 we pass over without observation in consequence of their 

 want of rarity, we see that the Providence that has made 

 them has also adapted each in the most perfect manner 

 for acquiring with facility the food on which it is designed 

 to live. The owl, that preys mostly on the quick-eared 

 mouse, has its wings edged with a kind of downy fringe, 

 which makes its flight silent a nd inaudible in the still even- 

 ino- air. Were its wings formed of the same kind of plum- 

 age as those of most other birds, it is so slow a flier that 

 the mouse, warned by the rustling of its approach, would 

 escape long before it could pounce upon it. The heron has 

 also a quantity of downy plumage about its wings, which 

 are also of a very concave form, and the bird alights in the 

 calm pool without making a ripple, and whilst standing 

 motionless, knee-deep in the water, it is almost invisible in 



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