28 THE BEAK. 



birds forms one uniform piece or continuation of the skull, 

 is united to the bone of the head by a peculiar membrane 

 placed on each side of it, enabling the bird to lift or depress 

 it at pleasure. The muscular power of this contrivance is 

 very great, for the truth of which all who have incautiously 

 exposed their fingers to the bite even of a Paroquet will 

 readily vouch. 



There is a bird, sometimes found in this country, called 

 the Cross-bill, from the singular construction of its beak, the 

 mandibles of which, instead of shutting together like those 

 of other birds, cross each other ; at first sight this might be 

 supposed to be an accidental deformity, and that the poor 

 bird must have great difficulty in picking up its food. But 

 this is by no means the case, for as the bird lives upon the 

 seeds or kernels of the hard fir-cones of pine-trees, it would 

 never be able to crack them, and must soon die of hunger, 

 if not furnished with a bill of more than ordinary strength 

 and peculiarity of construction ; exactly, in short, like the bill 

 with which nature has provided it: with this it can instantly, 

 and most dexterously, cut the hardest cones asunder. But 

 as Divine Providence guards against every possible difficulty 

 that might arise from any unusual conformation, so, in this 

 case, it has been found that the muscles for closing the lower 

 mandible were much larger and stronger on the side opposite 

 to that where the lower mandible crossed the upper one ; a 

 highly necessary provision, to make amends for the increased 

 quantity of power necessary to give the mandibles equal and 

 uniform strength. 



The Puffin is another bird with a strangely large and 

 dispro portioned bill, something like a Parrot's, whence it is 

 sometimes called the Sea Parrot : it is also very powerful, 

 and a bite from one of them would inflict a serious wound. 

 When once they seize an object, they are with difficulty 

 induced to leave hold of it; and, as they grasp it with great 

 force, a singular mode of catching them is practised, which 

 we shall notice when we come to speak of these birds. 



Again, the longer tapering bill of the Snipe and Wood- 

 cock tribe is the precise instrument wanted, for penetrating 



