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LIFE, IN ITS HIGHER FORMS. 



Peregrine Falcon is said to pluck, to disjoint, and to carve 

 its prey with as clean a cut and as prompt a skill as the 

 most accomplished " table-anatomist" could display. In 

 the Woodpeckers, which dig out their food and excavate 

 their dwellings from the solid timber of trees, the beak is 

 an effective chisel. In the Snipe and Woodcock it is a 



a. Beak of Falcon. ^ 6. Beak of Snipe, 



long and slender probe, furnished at the tip with copious 

 nerves of sensation, for feeling in the deep earth of bogs 

 and marshes. In the Parrots it is a climbing hook, a sort 

 of third foot (or rather hand) as well as a fruit-knife. In 

 the Ducks it is a pair of flat spoons, for scooping up the 

 slush of ponds ; and in the Gannet it is a strong and sharp 

 fish-spear. 



Versatile as is the beak in different tribes of birds, it no- 

 where performs a proper masticating function ; it may 

 divide flesh ; it may crack a nut, and, with the assistance 

 of the tongue, shell it j it may separate the grain from the 

 husk, as we see the Goldfinch and Canary constantly do 

 with their hempseed; but the nearest approach to a chew- 

 ing action that we at this moment recollect, is the bruising 

 down of hard seeds by means of a knob in the middle of 

 the palate, as in the Buntings (Emberizadce). The conse- 

 quence of this general absence of masticating power is, that 



