Beaks of Birds. 35 



fied, the short, strong bill adapted to the hard nature of their 

 customary diet ; the upper mandible is often considerably arched, 

 the edges overhanging and the tip blunt. Birds of this order, 

 however, do not always possess a bill capable of very great exer- 

 tion. In some cases, as in the pigeons, it is rather slender and 

 weak ; in all the other families it is stronger. But yet, perhaps, 

 taken alone, it seems scarcely so well adapted as the preceding 

 ones to the grain-eating habits of the bird. But if we push our 

 inquiries farther, we shall find these ground-birds furnished with 

 a peculiar repository for their food, whither it is conveyed whole 

 by the beak. This repository is called the crop ; it is globular' 

 and is nothing more than an enlargement of the ' ossophagus/ or 

 gullet, lying, when distended, equally on both sides of the neck. 

 As, then, the ground-birds are furnished with this peculiar crop, 

 to which the food is conveyed, it is clear that the beak belonging 

 to this division is amply sufficient for the purpose to which it is 

 applied, and greater strength and solidity would be superfluous. 

 The next order, ' Grallatores,' the ' waders,' commencing with 

 the water-birds, procures its food chiefly from the water, and this 

 food is partly animal, but also in a great measure vegetable ; 

 the customary haunts of the members of this order are marshes 

 and swamps, the banks of rivers and lakes, or the seashore. 

 They are usually provided with long legs, enabling them to 

 wade into the mud and water in search of food ; they are at tho 

 same time furnished with long necks, by which they are enabled 

 to reach such food as they have found. Suited to this habit is 

 their bill, whose general characteristic is long and slender, but 

 as the different families of this order obtain their food by various 

 means, so their beaks differ to a certain degree; some are straight 

 and sharp-pointed, acting as a spear to transfix their prey, as 

 in the family of herons ; some are curiously arched, rounded 

 throughout the whole length, as in the curlews; others are 

 rounded at the point, and provided with most sensitive nerves, 

 enabling them to discover and seize their prey, when thrust into 

 the soft mud, as in the snipes all have the same admirable 

 facility and adaptation for searching and procuring food in wet 



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