The Audubon Societies 385 



of a mouth, but it is not simply these, for its use shows that it is more like a 

 hand than either a nose or a pair of lips, although the nostrils perforate its 

 upper half and the mouth opening is through it. A life-long student of birds, 

 Dr. Elliott Coues, said: "The bill is hand and mouth in one — the instrument 

 of prehension. As hand, it takes, holds, and carries food or other substances 

 and, in many instances, feels; as mouth, it tears, cuts, or crushes, according 

 to the nature of the substances taken." At another time we may learn the 

 story of fossil birds, some of which had teeth, but now we can only notice that 

 modern birds have neither lips nor teeth, and that the bill is their most impor- 

 tant tool in getting food. 



The reason for this is not far to seek, because the arms and true hands of 

 the bird have been reduced to flying and not handling appendages. The bill 

 or beak, therefore, is the only convenient hand left, except the feet and claws, 

 which may serve at times to grasp food. The tongue assists the bill by suck- 

 ing or drawing into the mouth the food particles which the latter picks up. 



The beak is sometimes used as a hand in another way as, for example, 

 by holding the bird to a support to help it to climb, a use well illustrated in 

 the parrot family. Owls sometimes snap the upper and lower parts of the 

 bill together rapidly to frighten an intruder, while Woodpeckers tap and rap 

 a musical tattoo on hollow trees, or eave-spouts in the mating-season. A very 

 common use of the bill is to preen the feathers, and nearly all birds use it also 

 as a nest-building tool. The varied ways in which it is employed for this latter 

 purpose are remarkable, and worthy of the closest observation. 



It would seem that such a variety of uses might explain any kind of bill 

 found among birds, but such is not the case. Look at the picture of the Tufted 

 Puffin. Here is a type of beak wholly unlike any we have yet mentioned. It 

 is made up of a considerable number of plates or segments, which are molted 

 periodically, much as a snake sheds its skin or a lobster its shell. 



All this apparently superfluous part of the bill has no explanation except 

 as an ornament, for the Puffin is mainly a fish-eating species, having little 

 need of a heavy, crushing beak. 



And this leads us to the fact that the bill of a bird is a fairly good index 

 to the food-habit of its owner. If you will look carefully at the pictures of the 

 species listed above, you will see the truth of this statement for yourselves. 



The broad, rather flat bill of most of the Ducks, Geese and Swans is 

 fitted with strainers on both sides, which act automatically when the two 

 parts of the bill (upper and lower mandibles) are shut together. 



The seeds and roots of water-growing vegetation make up a considerable 

 part of the diet of these birds, but, along with such delicious tidbits, much 

 mud and water are scooped up, which readily run out through the strainer 

 edges of the bill, as it shuts to with a mouthful of food. Tipped up on end in 

 the water, a Pond-Duck or Goose may seem to be merely standing on its head 

 when in reality it is feeding. 



