THE GOD WITS. 219 



not enlarged into a knob like that of the snipes, nor having 

 the upper mandible in the least hooked or projecting over 

 the under. It is not a snapping bill, nor a boring one, 

 neither is it a scooping or a dabbling bill. It is not very 

 easy to find a single epithet descriptive of the function that 

 it performs, or rather of the manner in which it performs 

 that function : it is not shovelling or scooping, for it does 

 not remove from its place the sludge and sediment of the 

 water among which it seeks its food : and it does not dabble 



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or wash the mud as ducks do, till it finds out the substances 

 of which it is in quest. " Poking " is the nearest epithet, but 

 does not express the action exactly, as the bird " tries about," 

 and selects its food by the sense of touch in the bill, and not 

 by the sight. 



The birds are more of a wading habit than snipes, as the 

 other snipes are more of w^aders than the woodcocks ; but 

 still the food is not found in the water, but in the ooze ; and 

 if that ooze is soft enough for being penetrated by the bill, 

 the fact of its being with or without a small stratum of 

 water over it is of little consequence. That food is chiefly 

 mud-worms, mud-insects, and mud-larvse ; and the places 

 which the birds frequent are those in which these abound the 

 most the banks in the eddies of slow-running streams, or 

 the accumulations of sludge that are left bare in the estuaries 

 and creeks upon the shores of low and rich land on the 

 ebbing of the tide ; and especially the runs of mud from the 

 richer grounds into the pools of fens are the favourite places 

 with these birds. They breed in the fens, at a considerable 

 distance inland, if the ground is suitable, but they descend 

 nearer to the sea in winter, In their inland haunts, they 

 hide themselves during the heat of the day among the long 

 grass, where they have their nests ; and when they are near 

 the sea, their resting time varies with that at which the tide 

 leaves their favourite banks in the best condition for them. 



