'claws or teeth in contest with their own species, but birds, for their 

 partners, their nests, their hunting grounds, and their personal 

 dignity, are nearly always in contention. Their courage is un- 

 equalled by that of any other race of animals capable of 

 CDmprehending danger ; and their pertinacity and endurance have, 

 in all ages, made them an example to the brave, and an amusement 

 to the base among mankind. Nevertheless, since as sword, as 

 trowel, or as pocket comb, the beak of the bird has to be pointed, 

 the collection of seeds may be conveniently entrusted to this other- 

 wise penetrative instrument, and such foods as can only be 

 obtained by probing crevices, splitting open fissures, or neatly and 

 minutely picking things up, is allotted pre-eminently to the bird 

 species. " In writing especially of the robin's beak, Euskin con- 

 tinues, " You will find that the robin's beak, then, is a very 

 prettily representative one of general bird power. As a weapon, it 

 is very formidable indeed ; he can kill an adversary of his own 

 kind with one blow of it in the throat ; and is so pugnacious, 

 *' valde pugnax, " says Linnaeus, " ut non una arbor duos capiat 

 erithacos " (" no single tree can hold two cock robins;") and for 

 precision of seizure, the little flat hook at the end of the upper 

 mandible is one of the most delicately formed points of forceps 

 which you can find among the grain eaters." 



The bill or beak consists of two parts, the upper and lower 

 mandibles, or more accurately " the maxilla " which is the upper, 

 and " the mandible, " the lower part. That part of each which is 

 externally visible is an epi iermic sheath of horny or sometimes 

 leathery consistence, v/hich covers the bony part beneath. The 

 bony part beneath is a prolongation of the bones which would form 

 the nose and upper jaw in man for the maxilla, and the lower jaw 

 for the mandible. In most birds this horny sheath, which has a 

 long technical name, rhamphotheca, is in one entire piece for each 

 jaw, but in some, as in the Petrel, it is " pieced" or divided into 

 distinct parts by various lines of slight connection. The different 

 parts of the bill have received names useful for descriptive pur- 

 poses, but not always easy to remember at once hearing them. The 

 whole length of the middle line of the upper surface from the tip 

 or apex to where the feathers commence on the forehead is called 

 the " culmen. " This is an interesting word philologically. It is 

 a contraction of columen, which means "that which rises in 

 height, is prominent, projects;" hence " the point, top, summit, 

 ridge," from the root, " eel," the same as " celsus " high, " collis " 

 a hill. Hence our word "culminating." The lateral sharp edge 

 of the horny covering of either the maxilla or the mandible is the 

 " tomium " from the Greek " temno, " I cat. The partwherethe 

 jaws meet behind is "the commissure," or angle of the mouth, 



