ABOUT BIRDS' TOES. 



93 



owls can do the same, so that they have a very firm 

 grasp. 



In the woodpeckers and parrots there are always 

 two hind toes, but some other tree-climbers, like the 

 little Brown Creeper, get up a tree just as cleverly 

 with the usual arrangement of toes. 



The little sooty brown birds, who live in your 

 chimneys and are called Swifts, from their great speed, 



/=^ 



Fig. i8. — Grouse Foot. 



Fig. 19. — Foot of Flicker. 



have short, weak toes which they use very little. In 

 England there is a swift whose four toes all point 

 forward, but the bird spends nearly all day on the 

 wing, so that he does not need his feet for perching. 

 Notice the short hind toes of the duck and the grouse 

 (Figs. 15, 18), birds which flatten out the foot in 

 walking. 



The hen's hind toe, as you must know, does not 

 touch the ground, and in some birds this toe has 

 been used so little that it has practically disappeared. 



