THE BIRDS OF THE GREEN LANES. 



141 



supplied with a remarkably sensitive tip, which must 

 be admirably adapted for searching far below the sur- 

 face in boggy and marshy ground for various larvae and 

 worms. Indeed, there is not a single department of 

 natural science that, by the marvellous adjustment of 

 life-forms to ail the possibilities of physical conditions, 



Fig. 95. 



Bill of Snipe (Yarns!!). 



does not silently but emphatically tell us of the 

 antiquity of existing species, and of the parallel 

 modifications in generic types which have been 

 made to keep pace with geological changes. In this 

 way the inorganic world, as represented by the 

 necessary alterations of physical geography, has 

 always been directly related to those vital changes 



