68 



THE FOOD OF ANIMALS 



molluscs, of detaching the tenacious limpet caught unawares, 

 and of securing sundry creatures which burrow in the sand and 

 thoughtlessly come too near the surface. 



Godwits (fig. 357) and Curlews (fig. 358) are plover-like birds 

 with long legs which enable them to wade to some extent when 

 searching for food. The long slender beak (curved in the Cur- 

 lews) is well suited for probing in mud, moist earth, or sand, 

 with the object of securing such small animals as live therein. 

 During the summer these birds frequent moors and marshy 

 uplands, and vary their animal diet with berries and the like, 

 but in winter they haunt the sea-shore, and are then more strictly 

 of carnivorous habit. 



The last point suggests the habits of another member of the 

 Plover Family, e.g. the Long- beaked Woodcock (Scolopax rusti- 



Fig. 359.— Woodcock [Scolopax rusticola) 



cola) (fig. 359), which searches for worms along the banks of 

 streams and in marshy ground. The sensitive beak bores deep 

 into the mud, and is kept motionless until, perchance, some con- 

 tiguous worm inadvertently wriggles, and next moment is as 

 often as not captured by a sudden thrust on the part of the 

 aggressor. A similar procedure is adopted by the smallest living 

 flightless bird, the Kiwi {Apteryx) (see vol. i, p. 190) of New 

 Zealand, and in this case the nostrils are placed close to the tip 

 of the long beak, a very unusual position. As might be expected 



