THE PINTAIL SNIPE. 347 
It is the drying-up of this nerve matter that reveals these 
cavities. Clearly this elaborate nervous plexus, calculated to 
make the end of the bill extremely sensitive, and this widen- 
ing out of the bill, so as to increase the size of the sensitive 
area, point to a habit of obtaining the food almost entirely 
in situations where the sense of sight will not avail; in the 
_case of this bird deep in the mud, where the bill has to do 
the work of both eyes and hands. But the bill of the Pintail 
is quite different; there is no dilation towards the tip anda 
mere trace of the pits so conspicuous in the Fantail ; they 
exist, but are very much smaller, involving a greatly dimi- 
nished sensitiveness, and cover a materially smaller area. 
Moreover, the tip of the bill is stronger, the knob on the lower 
surface of the tip of the upper mandible being thicker and 
larger, and altogether the extreme tip of the mandible stronger. 
Clearly this points to feeding habitually in harder ground, 
and where the eyes can more materially assist in discovering 
food, z.¢, in drier places. 
Nor is this a mere hypothesis ; the contents of the stomachs 
sufficiently confirm this @ priori argument. In the Pintail 
you find all kinds of /axd organisms, grubs, caterpillars, small 
insects, crustacea, shells and grass, as well as and more fre- 
quently than worms, water grubs, aquatic insects, and tiny 
water-shells and crustacea, which constitute the entire food (in 
this country at any rate) of the Fantail. 
Then as to the flight, I personally am perfectly certain 
that, as a general rule, and under like conditions, the flight of 
the Pintail is heavier and more direct than that of the Common 
Snipe; and in nine cases out of ten, you can, if due allowance 
be made for existing conditions, tell at once the species of the 
bird, before you draw trigger, simply by the flight. Of course 
if you flush Pintail in a cold morning with a good wind, they 
fly infinitely smarter than Fantail, rising ina dead calm under 
a hot, mid-day sun; or if you work Pintail on a wind they 
will go off sharper and twisting more than Fantail worked 
off the wind ; but I individually am certain that all conditions 
being identical, the flight of the Pintail is more laboured, more 
direct, and less zig-zaggy than that of the Fantail. 
As to the notes of the two birds, I am at a loss to under- 
stand how amy one can assert that they are identical. To my 
ears they are as distinct as two sounds of the same class can 
well be—that of the Pintail being sharper, and more screechy. 
With birds flushed singly, within 25 yards, I would undertake, 
with my eyes shut, to identify every bird that rose correctly. 
Of course where half a dozen birds of each species are rising 
at varying distances all round one, at the same time, or where 
birds rise at long distances, no one, probably, could certainly 
discriminate the sounds. 
Ido not think that, as a rule, Pintail afford the chance for 
