INSECTIVOROUS BILLS. ] 93 



INSECTIVOROUS BILLS, OR DENTIROSTRES. 



The insectivorous birds, when properly restricted, 

 consist of those genera only which have the common 

 normal feet with three toes before and one behind, 

 all articulated on the same level, and thus have their 

 more peculiar characters in the bills or the bills, than 

 the wings. They are inhabitants of woods, copses, and 

 bushes, those being the places where insects are most 

 abundant, though some of them inhabit the margins 

 of waters, and nestle in holes of rocks, or under stones. 

 They all take their food either standing on the ground 

 or perching on the sprays, or they dart upon it by short 

 jerks from the ground or the perch. Their bills are 

 accordingly all snapping bills, generally light in their 

 structure, having the upper mandible rather longer 

 than the under one, and notched near the tip, but 

 not so sharp pointed or so firm in the tomia generally 

 as the bills of vegetable feeders. The point of the 

 bill is the prehensile part of it ; and the culmen of the 

 upper mandible is usually a little arched to support 

 that part. In those genera which are characterised 

 by superior boldness the bill is compressed, and the 

 upper mandible hooked at the tip, while in the feebler 

 ones it is rather depressed, and the tip straighter. 



Butcher Bird. 



The shrikes, a figure of the bill of one of which is 

 annexed, are the most daring birds of this division, 

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