THE SAND-PIPER. 179 



in some particular places remain nearly on the same ground 

 all the year. 



The sand-pipers are perhaps the least aquatic of our marsh 

 birds, and their structure agrees with their habit. 



The bill of the sand-piper is flexible in the basal half, but 

 it becomes hard and firm towards the point, with bruising 

 edges to the mandibles, and the upper one slightly hooked 

 at the tip, and bending a little over the extremity of the 

 under one, so that the action of the two could break a small 

 shell, or crush the crust of a shrimp, or the wing-cases of a 

 beetle. To some, it may seem that the flexibility of the bill 

 is a means of weakness in these birds ; but it is, in truth, a 

 means of safety : they have to strike rapidly at their prey 

 upon the hard ground, and also to wrench and twist among 

 the stones, both of which operations would give consider- 

 able concussion to the head, if the bill were inflexible ; 

 besides, in living animals a flexible substance is always 

 stronger than a rigid one ; and hence the boring and scoop- 

 ing bills of the analogous genera are flexible for their whole 

 length. 



The legs of the sand-pipers are rather long, and bare of 

 feathers to a considerable height above the tarsal joint, not 

 so much for the purpose of wading (though it adapts them 

 better for that operation in case of necessity) as for running 

 more freely over sand and among stones. Their wings are 

 long and pointed, the first quill being the longest ; and thus 

 they are as well furnished for wheeling about in the sky, and 

 seeking proper feeding-places, as they are for running along 

 the sandy and gravelly banks and beaches. They are rare 

 birds, as indeed are those of the analogous genera. Their 

 eggs are always four, placed in the same manner as those 

 of the plovers. The eggs are large in proportion to the size 

 of the birds ; and, indeed, although there are some exceptions 

 to it, it seems a pretty general law, that the eggs of those 



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