Shore-bird Shooting 337 



They are rather small birds as a rule, having 

 usually long and slender bills with the tip soft 

 and fleshy. Several of the woodcocks, snipe, god- 

 wit, and sandpipers have the power of opening the 

 tip of the bill while the base is closed. These 

 birds bore in the soft mud for their food, and this 

 faculty is doubtless of great service in enabling 

 them to grasp a worm or similar object that the 

 sensitive tip of the bill may touch. Others feed 

 on small fish, insects, and minute life of various 

 kinds that abounds at the water's edge. All are 

 graceful birds of pleasing plumage, but few are 

 brilliantly colored, and there is little difference 

 in the sexes. They are swift on the wing, and 

 many, even of the smaller species, travel remark- 

 able distances during the year, breeding within 

 the Arctic circle and wintering in Patagonia. 



In most of this group the neck is rather long 

 and the nostrils are narrow, opening in a groove 

 on the side of the bill, which is also true of the 

 phalaropes, stilts, and avocets. Their legs are 

 covered with transverse scales in front, but their 

 anterior toes are not bordered with a broad 

 web, although a slight web is present in some 

 species at the base. The hind toe is usually 

 present. While agreeing in these respects, they 

 differ in so many others that the species found in 

 North America have been divided into nineteen 

 genera. 



