is rather spoonsliapecl, as in the Spoonbill and Boatbill. In many 

 birds that feed chiefly in water or mud the beak is rather broad, 

 and its edges are widened and divided on the surface into fine 

 plates or ridges something like the undersurface of a mushroom. 

 When the upper and lower mandibles are nearly closed, this acts 

 like a sieve to filter the water through and retain the particles of 

 food. Geese and ducks show this variety well. In the Shoveler 

 this sieve-like arrangement is beautifully shown. In the Flamingo, 

 the bill is bent downwards at an obtuse angle, and the bird, which 

 has very long legs and neck, sifts the soft mud of the lagoons in 

 which it is wading to feed, by turning its bill upside down, as 

 though it were preparing to stand on its head. The upper 

 mandible is also more movable than the lower in this exceptional 

 bird. The young Flamingo is born with a short straight bill, and 

 this final shape is assumed graddally and comparatively late. In 

 many of our smaller common birds, such as the finches, an 1 the 

 house sparrow, the bill is short, c n'cal, and hard, well adapted 

 for shelling and eating the various seeds that form the chief 

 p -rtion of their dietwhen adults. Modifications extend in the 

 direction of fineness and delicacy to tlie beak of the robin, and of 

 massive strength to that of the hawfinch. I have mentioned that 

 the Apteryx or kiwi is the only bird that has its nostrils at the 

 extreme end of the maxilla. Sir W. Butler gives the following 

 account of its behaviour when obtaining its food: — 'While 

 hunting for its food the bird makes a continual suiffing sound 

 through the nostrils, which are placed at the extremity of the 

 upper mandible. Whether it is guided as much by touch as by 

 smell, I cannot safely say ; but it appears to me that both senses 

 are used in the action. 'Chat the sense of touch is highly developed 

 seems quite certain, because the bird, although it may not be 

 audibly s-iiffing, will always touch the object with the point of its 

 bill, whether in the act of feeding or of surveying the ground ; aud 

 when shut up in a cage or coufined iu a room it may be lieard all 

 through the night tapping softly at the walls It is interesting to 

 watch the bird, in a state of freedom, foraging for worms, which 

 constitute its principal food ; it moves about with a slow action of 

 thf* body ; and the long flexible bill is driven into the soft ground, 

 generally home to tho very root, and is either imme^liately with- 

 drawn with a worm held at the extreme end of the mandibles, or 

 it is gently moved to and fro, by an action of the head an i neck, 

 the body of the bird being perfectly steidy It is amusing to 

 observe the extreme care and deliberation with which the bird 

 draws the worm from its hiding place, coaxing it out as it were by 

 •degrees, instead of pulling roughly or breaking it. On getting the 



