290 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE 



action of small muscles attached to the quadrate bone, the long slender 

 rod which forms the lower border of the bony framework of the upper 

 jaw is driven forward, a movement which has the effect of driving the 

 last inch upwards, so that the worm is caught, as it were, in a cleft 

 stick. As soon as the sense of touch shows that the worm is in 

 position, the raised tip is brought down upon the lower jaw and the 

 prey is held, as by a pair of forceps, and drawn out. The same is 

 true of the snipe and some of the Waders. (Fig. 3.) It is clear that 

 some such mechanism is necessary for this method of feeding, since, if 

 the beak were thrust open into the soil, it would be filled therewith : 

 while if it were thrust in closed and lacked the mechanism just 

 described, the muscles of the jaws would not be strong enough to force 

 away the soil along the whole length of this slender probe. It is 

 certainly strange that these curious movements of the beak should 

 not be more widely known to-day, the more so since they are at any 

 rate briefly referred to in so well known a work as Yarrell's, wherein 

 some remarks on the subject by the late Henry Stevenson are quoted. 

 He remarked that " the flexibility of the upper mandible of the bill is 

 so great that it more resembles the writhings of a worm than a beak, 

 and this voluntary upward movement, added to the exquisite sense of 

 touch possessed by the anterior portion of the beak, assists the bird 

 in obtaining its food." 



The gape of the woodcock and snipe, as everybody knows, is very 

 small, so much so that the passage of a large worm completely fills it : 

 thus it happens that soil adhering to the body of the worm is 

 scraped off by the rim of the mouth and there tends to accumulate. 

 To prevent such disagreeable consequences, both woodcock and 

 snipe are said never to feed far from water, in order that they may 

 frequently wash away the offending matter. 



In leaving and returning to its feeding-ground, the woodcock 

 displays curiously methodical movements. As the twilight settles 

 down the bird rises silently, as if mindful that most of the 

 dwellers in its wood are asleep, and flits down some glade or ride in 



