Beak

“ Compare (and of course with the pencil) the beaks of birds: the beak of the seagull with that of the swallow, or with that of the parrot. In the last-mentioned bird the beak seems to predominate and form the greater part of the skull. Sketch the curious square shape of the parrot's upper and lower beak, together with the wrinkled skin, and the sharp cunning little eye.
Birds' feet and legs exhibit astonishing variations of form. What, for instance, could be more dissimilar than a stork's leg and an owl's, the duck's web and the swallow's claw, the eagle's talon and the sparrows? ”

“ The monster’s mouth—a beak made of horn and shaped like that of a parrot—opened and closed vertically. Its tongue, also of horn substance and armed with several rows of sharp teeth, would flicker out from between these genuine shears. What a freak of nature! A bird’s beak on a mollusk! Its body was spindle-shaped and swollen in the middle, a fleshy mass that must have weighed 20,000 to 25,000 kilograms. Its unstable color would change with tremendous speed as the animal grew irritated, passing successively from bluish gray to reddish brown. ”

“ I do not think it is distinctly enough felt by us that the beak of a bird is not only its mouth, but its hand, or rather its two hands. For, as its arms and hands are turned into wings, all it has to depend upon, in economical and practical life, is its beak. ”

“ A little bird comes flitting silently from the willows and perches on the drooping beech branch. It is a delicate little creature, the breast of a faint and dull yellowy green, the wings the lightest brown, and there is a pencilled streak over the eye. The beak is so slender it scarce seems capable of the work it should do, the legs and feet so tiny that they are barely visible. ”

“ In this genus the beak is short, compressed, pointed, high at the base, where it ascends on the forehead in a broad shield; the nostrils pervious, and pierced in a wide furrow, in the middle of the beak. Wings short, concave, the second or third quill longest; the shoulder armed with a small spine, not projecting. Legs rather short, strong, naked a little above the heel; feet large; toes long, and rather slender, divided to the base, bordered with a narrow membrane; hind toe comparatively short; claws compressed, very acute. Plumage soft and thick, but loose in texture. ”

“ To begin with, you must remember that an animal has not got the beautiful little nest-making tool which a bird has—I mean, of course, a beak. A bird's beak is used something like a knitting-needle, to thread the little wisps of hay and feathers and moss and things like that in and out and round about, until they stick where the beak tells them. ”

“ Even seated upon the sea his proportions appear somewhat ungainly, while his huge hooked beak seems too heavy to be upheld. On land he can hardly balance himself, and the broad silky webs of his feet soon become lacerated. ”

“ The beak is dark red, having at the base a large black callous knob, and at the tip something resembling the head of a nail, black, and rather bent; a bare black triangular streak extends from the beak to the eyes; the feet are black the first year, lead grey the second, and reddish lead grey at last; the plumage is a snowy white. ”

“ He puts his beak down into the swamp, in search of insects and snails or other marine life—est-ce que je sais?—and drawing in the bog-water through holes in his beak, makes a booming sound which is most impressive. ”

“ Often, too, they will rise beak to beak only, the position being then between perpendicular and horizontal, but more the latter, the tail part of them giving constant little flirts upwards—as when a volatile Italian in an umbrella shop leans his whole weight on the stick of one of the umbrellas and leaps, or, rather, swings himself from the ground, kicking his heels into the air, to demonstrate its strength. ”

“ And so she changed into a woodpecker; the long beak is the long nose of the old woman, and she goes about hunting for these midges, beetles and ants in the hope of filling up the sack, when she would again resume her human shape. ”

“ In the sky above they beheld a spectacle, calculated to inspire them with feelings of a strange interest.
Right above the lake, and also over their heads, a brace of large birds was circling in the air. Each was borne up by a pair of huge wings full five yards from tip to tip; while from the body, between, a neck of enormous length was extended horizontally—prolonged into a tapering-pointed beak, in shape like the seed-pistil of a pelargonium. ”

“ Its beak, you see, is reduced to a mere nothing. Just compare the beak of this one and that of the first one, the Carrier—I believe the orthodox comparison of the head and beak of a thoroughly well-bred Tumbler is to stick an oat into a cherry, and that will give you the proper relative proportions of the beak and head. The feet and legs are exceedingly small, and the [Pg 223] bird appears to be quite a dwarf when placed side by side with this great Carrier. ”

“ It is familiar not only with the shape and colour of beak, bill, claw, talon, and plume, but with the purposes for which they are designed, and with the instincts which guide their use in the beautiful economy of all-gracious Nature. We remember the time when the very word Ornithology would have required interpretation in mixed company; when a naturalist was looked on as a sort of out-of-the-way but amiable monster. ”

“ Now, I shall only say, that the beak is the horny, outer end of the jaw-bone. Birds never have any teeth. The beak often forms the larger part of the bird’s head. The head is small for the body, and nearly flat on top.
When you see a bird with two things like horns on its head, as some owls have, do not think that they are either horns or ears. Birds have no horns. These things are only feather head-dresses. Birds have ears, but the ear-hole is hidden under the feathers. Birds have very keen sight, very keen [Pg 170] power of smell. ”

“ This is done partly with the beak, but partly with the foot; and I have seen them, after scratching themselves, put up the foot to the beak, apparently delivering something into the mouth. Occasionally they throw the head back, and make a loud clattering with the beak. Passing along the road one forenoon in May, a large number were wheeling round the roosting place, some alighting, and others rising. Those which were on the wing uttered, particularly as they swooped near the tree, on which they made as if they would alight, a repeated chuck, not loud, with a rather rapid iteration. ”

“ The under part of the body is of a deep rose colour.
There is a variety of this species with a black beak.
In the female, or what is supposed to be so, the forehead, the throat, the sides of the head and neck are pale orange colour; an oval black streak descends from the corners of the beak towards the throat; the nape, the top of the neck, the shoulders, back, rump, and upper part of the tail, are meadow green. The breast and belly, to the extremity, are of a fine green. ”

“ On some cold day, when the sun is shining, visit all the orchards of which you know, and see if in one or more you cannot find a good-sized, gray, black, and white bird, which keeps to the topmost branch of a certain tree. Look at him carefully through your glasses, and if his beak is hooked, like that of a hawk, you may know that you are watching a northern shrike, or butcher bird. His manner is that of a hawk, and his appearance causes instant panic among small birds. If you watch long enough you may see him pursue and kill a goldfinch, or sparrow, and devour it. ”

“ Are they all able, as soon as hatched, to direct the beak with perfect accuracy, to select suitable nourishment, and to flutter about awaiting merely the growth of their wing-feathers before they can take flight? ”

“ Quite likely on the next tree a brown creeper—sedate brown little lady of a bird—is gliding about the trunk, very daintily picking and searching with her long slender and curving beak for similar hidden food. ”

“ At the same time were we to review the birds in detail, as we have done the mammals, you would see that there are almost more modifications to be observed in this one single instrument than in our thirty-two teeth. All birds have a beak, but each has his own, organized expressly with reference to the kind of food needed by its owner. The eagle's beak, which mangles living prey, is pointed, bent, and hard as steel; the bill of the duck, which laps up water from ponds and puddles, in order to get worms and half-decomposed refuse out of it, is soft, and flattened like a shovel. ”

“ For miles around not a drop of water may be found; it seems as if every pool and lake were solid to the bottom, and yet, when we see a large bird, with goose-like body, long neck and long, pointed beak, flying like a bullet of steel through the sky, we may be sure that there is open water to the northward, for a loon never makes a mistake. When the first pioneer of these hardy birds passes, he knows that somewhere beyond us fish can be caught. ”

“ The beak in one bird which I possessed was almost completely buried when the oesophagus was fully expanded. The males, especially when excited, pout more than the females, and they glory in exercising this power. If a bird will not, to use the technical expression, "play," the fancier, as I have witnessed, by taking the beak into his mouth, blows him up like a balloon; and the bird, then puffed up with wind and pride, struts about, retaining his magnificent size as long as he can. Pouters often take flight with their crops inflated. ”

“ It is this need of the beak's being a mechanical tool which chiefly regulates the form of a bird's face, as opposed to a four-footed animal's. If the question of food were the only one, we might wonder why there were not more four-footed creatures living on seeds than there are ”

“ But often the beak becomes a large and enormously long human nose, and the whole creature is conceived as human, nothing bird-like remaining but the fan of feathers with which it fans itself. It is often dressed in leaves, and wears on its head a tiny cap. ”

“ Now the measures of the beak, the tibia, the thigh-bone, and the scull, compared with the most perfect of the embalmed birds taken from the mummy pits, do agree in every thing as exactly as can be expected. The length of the beak in my drawing seems to exceed that of the embalmed bird, but I will not be positive; this small error is not in the design, though the white feathers are scorched in the embalmed birds, yet there is no difficulty in perceiving the colour distinctly; there is less in distinguishing the black upon the wings and above its rump. ”

“ Beak short but broad, and more or less flattened horizontally; mouth very deeply cleft; feet small and weak; wings with nine visible primaries, long and powerful, and thus adapted for sustaining a protracted flight in pursuit of winged insects, which form the sole sustenance of these birds; tail long and usually forked; plumage close, smooth, often burnished with a metallic gloss. ”

“ Again, the length of the feet and of the beak,–although they have no relation to each other, yet appear to go together,–that is, you have a long beak wherever you have long feet. There are differences also in the periods of the acquirement of the perfect plumage–the size and shape of the eggs–the nature of flight, and the powers of flight–so-called "homing" birds having enormous flying powers [2] ; [416] while, on the other hand, the little Tumbler is so called because of its extraordinary faculty of turning head over heels in the air, instead of pursuing a direct course. ”

“ The web goes only part way to the toe nail. That bird could not swim. No. He was a wading bird.
His long stilt-like legs held his body above the water, [Pg 176] while he watched for his fish food. The webs in his feet served, not to make him a paddle-foot, but just to keep him from sinking in the soft sand or mud. Or you may find the webs changed to broad flaps on each toe.
Now turn to the hen. Is her beak made for digging in mud, under water? No. Her short, strong beak is for picking up grain or insects from the ground. Now see what feet she has to match this beak. She has walking feet. ”

“ The beak is small, and high at its base, the foot short, or of moderate size, without a spur, and the plumage, which completely covers the head, alike in both sexes. These birds are met with over a larger portion of the globe than any other members of the entire order, as they not only inhabit the whole of the Eastern Hemisphere, but are particularly numerous in Australia and the Malay Islands. ”

“ In one extensive tropical group, however, that of the gaily coloured Tanagers of America, the beak, though decidedly of conirostral form, is distinctly notched, and this probably constitutes one link of connexion between this tribe and the preceding. The feet are, upon the whole, formed rather for perching than for walking, though many genera walk on the ground habitually. ”

“ The beak is usually less developed in large animals. The inset photo shows a ventral view of the tip of the lower jaw of an adult male from the east coast of Florida. The two teeth of the species are emerged above the gum only in adult males. ”

“ The beak is opened more widely than would seem to be necessary for the production of the sound, as if to show this coloration, even though, for the moment, there may be no other bird there to see it. If, however, the rosy inward complexion were in any way an attraction, it would be natural for a bird, wanting its mate, to associate the wish with the action of opening the beak, just as a lonely dove in a cage will coo and bow as to a partner. ”

“ The value and efficiency of this organ will be apparent when the economy of the bird is known; it obtains its food, consisting of the larvæ of wood-boring insects, by chiselling away the bark and surrounding wood, until the subtle grub is exposed. The head, then, acts as a hammer, of which the beak is the face or point, and the curved neck the handle, and being moved by muscles of great energy, the sharp and wedge-like beak-tip is propelled against the tree in a succession of strokes given with extraordinary force and rapidity. ”