FLAT-BILLED BIRDS, OR DABBLERS. 305 



or membrane, having laminae on the sides, bearing more 

 or less resemblance to small teeth, and its surface generally, 

 but more especially towards the edge and the tip, besefc 

 with papillae, from which it is natural to infer that the bill is 

 an organ of sensation, but whether of a sense resembling 

 that which we call touch in the human body (without know- 

 ing very clearly what we mean by the term) we are unable 

 to determine. 



In proportion as this character is more complete in the 

 bill, the birds find their food more generally and habitually 

 by that operation which is commonly called dabbling ; and 

 which consists of a sort of washing or sifting soft and watery 

 sludge with the bill, so as to separate the eatable substances 

 that are in it. This habit is not exclusive perhaps in any 

 species ; and, indeed, many of them live much more on vege- 

 table food than do the birds of the preceding division, and 

 not only upon soft seeds and albuminous roots, but also upon 

 green leaves, of which we have a familiar instance in the 

 common goose. The internal structure corresponds with the 

 variation in the bill and the food, the gizzard being stronger, 

 and the intestine longer in proportion as the natural feeding 

 of the bird is more vegetable. Such as feed upon shellfish 

 have the gizzard enormous. Some species can live with very 

 little access to water ; but water is their proper element, and 

 when deprived of it they are never healthy. They often catch 

 substances in the water as well as pick up others on land, and 

 in both these cases, they are partially at least guided by sight ; 

 but in proportion as they seek their food more exclusively in 

 the sludge, whether in shallow water where they can wade, or 

 in deeper water where they must swim, or in deeper still where 

 they must dive (for some of them have that habit), they 

 appear to find their food with less assistance from the sight. 

 But those which swim or dive appear to do so more for the 

 purpose of reaching the sludge and ooze, than for preying 



VOL. II. X 



