28 
THE BEAK. 
birds forms one uniform piece or continuation of the skull, 
is united to the bone of the head by a peculiar membrane 
placed on each side of it, enabling the bird to lift or depress 
it at pleasure. The muscular power of this contrivance is 
very great, for the truth of which all who have incautiously 
exposed their fingers to the bite even of a Paroquet will 
readily vouch. 
There is a bird, sometimes found in this country, called 
the Cross-bill, from the singular construction of its beak, the 
mandibles of which, instead of shutting together like those 
of other birds, cross each other ; at first sight this might be 
supposed to be an accidental deformity, and that the poor 
bird must have great difficulty in picking up its food. But 
this is by no means the case, for as the bird lives upon the 
seeds or kernels of the hard fir-cones of pine-trees, it would 
never be able to crack them, and must soon die of hunger, 
if not furnished with a bill of more than ordinary strength 
and peculiarity of construction ; exactly, in short, like the bill 
with which nature has provided it: with this it can instantly, 
and most dexterously, cut the hardest cones asunder. But 
as Divine Providence guards against every possible difficulty 
that might arise from any unusual conformation, so, in this 
case, it has been found that the muscles for closing the lower 
mandible w ere much larger and stronger on the side opposite 
to that where the lower mandible crossed the upper one ; a 
highly necessary provision, to make amends for the increased 
quantity of power necessary to give the mandibles equal and 
uniform strength. 
The Puffin is another bird with a strangely large and 
dispro portioned bill, something like a Parrot’s, whence it is 
sometimes called the Sea Parrot : it is also very powerful, 
and a bite from one of them would inflict a serious wound. 
When once they seize an object, they are with difficulty 
induced to leave hold of it; and, as they grasp it with great 
force, a singular mode of catching them is practised, which 
we shall notice when we come to speak of these birds. 
Again, the longer tapering bill of the Snipe and Wood- 
cock tribe is the precise instrument wanted, for penetrating 
