346 SCOLOPACID^E. 



known to sportsmen as is its wild zig-zag flight on being 

 flushed. When feeding, however, .it may sometimes be 

 closely approached, unawares, and will then try to escape 

 notice by squatting close down to the ground, or in the 

 water. That it occasionally perches on trees, notice- 

 boards, &c., although hotly disputed at one time by persons 

 of limited experience, is now too well known to call for 

 extended remarks, but ample evidence will be found in Mr. 

 Stevenson's Birds of Norfolk,' ii. p. 329, and in ' The 

 Ibis/ 1876, p. 310, where Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie- 

 Brown describe one, of many, which was shot for identifica- 

 tion, perched on the topmost twig of a larch seventy feet from 

 the ground, with its head lower than its tail and body, and 

 uttering at intervals its double, clucking tjick-tjuck, tjick- 

 tjuck. Many others of the Scolopacidce, arid some Gulls 

 and Ducks, are also well known to perch. 



The feeding-ground of the Snipe is by the sides of land 

 springs, or in water meadows ; and in low flat countries they 

 are frequently found among wet turnips. The holes made 

 with their bills, when searching for food, are easily traced. In 

 a communication on the subject of Snipes,* the Author de- 

 scribed a peculiarity in the beak of the species of this genus. 

 The end of the beak of the Snipe, when the bird is alive, or if 

 recently killed, is smooth, soft, and pulpy, indicating great 

 sensibility ; but some time afterwards it becomes dimpled 

 like the end of a thimble. If the upper mandible be macer- 

 ated in water for a few days, the skin, or cuticle, may be 

 readily peeled off; and the engraving here introduced is a 

 magnified representation of the appearance then exhibited. 



The external surface presents numerous elongated, hexa- 



* Loudon's Mag. Nat. Hist. iii. p. 29 (1830), under the initials S. T. P. 



