SNIPE-LIKE BIRDS 3 



The only birds that we have to consider in this con- 

 nection belong to the snipe family, which may be sep- 

 arated into several groups. All snipe-like birds have 

 long bills usually covered with a sensitive skin, which 

 is soft throughout and furnishes to the bird a useful 

 organ of touch. While the bill is long, it is never wide 

 though in one or two cases expanded at the tip ; the 

 nostrils are short, narrow slits. The toes are usually 

 four, though in two or three cases there are but three. 

 Usually they are separated, but in a few species they are 

 palmated or semi-palmated. The neck and legs are usu- 

 ally long and the legs seldom feathered down to the 

 tarsal joint. Most of the birds belonging to this family 

 are of small size, but occasionally, as in the curlews, the 

 birds are as large as a small domestic fowl. 



Snipe and sandpipers are exceedingly gregarious, 

 traveling in flocks whose numbers can hardly be 

 counted. This makes them especially subject to danger 

 from gunners, and the birds being gentle and unsus- 

 picious may often return to the decoys over and over 

 again after being shot at. Over-shooting and lack of 

 enforced protection has almost put an end to the shore- 

 bird shooting on a great part of the Atlantic coast. 



Snipe-like birds usually build in or near marshy 

 places or by water, and as a rule lay four eggs. The 

 voice is a shrill, but often sweet, whistle, readily imi- 

 tated and used to lure the birds to decoys. Ornitholo- 

 gists state that there are about ninety well-marked 

 species of these birds, which are divided into five 

 groups, the first containing the woodcock and snipe, the 



