28G 



WOODCOCK AND SNIPE 



extreme shortening of the base of the skull, which has tilted the 

 floor upwards, so that the cerebrum, instead of lying in front of the 

 cerebellum, lies above it, or, in other words, the long axis of the brain, 

 instead of running parallel with the long axis of the skull, runs at right 

 angles to it. This bending downwards, and forwards, of the brain 



Fig. 1. WOODCOCK. 



cavity has been attended by a shifting forwards of the aperture of the 

 ear. In say a gannet, or a gull, this aperture lies far behind the eye 

 socket. In the snipe and woodcock it lies underneath it ! A reference 

 to the diagrams will make this clear at a glance. Thus it comes about 



Fig. 2. GANNET. 



that if a freshly killed snipe be examined, the aperture of the ear will 

 be found under the eye, but in the woodcock it has shifted still 

 farther forwards, so that if a line be drawn at right angles to the long 

 axis of the beak, and passing just inside the anterior border of the rim 

 of the eyelid, this line will pass behind the aperture of the ear ! (Fig. 1.) 

 In this particular the snipe and woodcock are the most highly 

 specialised of all birds. Finally, in the snipe and woodcock, in 

 common with some other Limicolce, e.g. dunlin, the tip of the upper 

 jaw is strangely mobile, so that it can be raised upwards and brought 

 down again in opposition to the lower jaw, thereby forming a 



