SNIPES. 205 



They either live in concealment among the rank herbage of 

 marshy places, or conceal themselves during the day, in the 

 woods, and come abroad to feed in the dusk, or during the 

 night. 



The bills of the snipes are curious organs : they are soft, 

 long, straight, flattened, and slender ; blunt at the tip, with 

 the upper mandible larger than the under, and forming a 

 knob on its under side, against which the tip of the lower 

 mandible acts. The nasal grooves extend nearly the whole 

 length of the upper mandible, and the nostrils are narrow 

 longitudinal slits, covered by membranous valves. The bill 

 is copiously supplied with nerves, and highly sentient ; and 

 the membrane with which it is invested, and which becomes 

 shrivelled after death, in the same manner as the organs of 

 sensation in all animals, are the first to shrink or shrivel, 

 is probably endowed with more than one sense smells the 

 food in the soft earth, and feels it, after boring down; as 

 the birds bore down upon their prey, whether worm or 

 aquatic insect, and do not dabble along, as if merely guided 

 to it by touch, as many swimming birds are. The form 

 of the head is also peculiar. Its profile is square, and the 

 eyes are placed much farther backward than those of most 

 birds, so that they see better laterally than forward, and 

 probably command nearly the space behind them. Their 

 eyes not being much wanted in the immediate capture of 

 their prey, are placed so as to guard best against enemies, 

 and to allow the bill to bore in the mud for its whole length. 

 The feet are adapted for walking rather upon soft mud than 

 on grassy surfaces, as they have the hinder toe very little 

 produced or extended. They moult twice in the year, but 

 with little difference in the markings, only the tints are 

 richer in the breeding season. From their localities and 

 habits, they enjoy a more uniform temperature than most 

 other land birds. 



