MARCH. LARGE FLOCKS OF GEESE. 203 



their strong and sharp bills. The crossbill, too, 

 shears off the fir-cones and extracts the seeds with 

 his clumsy-looking bill with a facility that no other 

 shaped tool would afford him. In short, go through 

 the list of all birds, and you will find that each one 

 is perfectly adapted in form and powers for pro- 

 curing its peculiar food. 



Whilst talking of the food of birds I cannot help 

 adverting to the absurd idea of woodcocks and 

 snipes living " by suction," which you see gravely 

 affirmed as a fact; whereas a snipe or woodcock is 

 as great an eater as any bird I know. Any one 

 who has kept either of these birds in confinement 

 well knows what difficulty he has had in supplying 

 them with sufficient worms to satisfy their ravenous 

 appetite. My friend Mr. Hancock tells me that 

 he has succeeded in keeping many kinds of sand- 

 pipers, and even the common snipe, alive and in 

 good health by feeding them principally on boiled 

 liver minced small, which seems to approximate 

 more closely to the usual food of insectivorous and 

 worm-eating birds, than any other substance. 



It is amusing to see the arrival of the larger 

 flocks of geese about this time of year. A few 

 small companies of pink-footed and white-fronted 

 geese usually arrive early in the month, but about 

 the 28th, and generally on some quiet evening, im- 



