CHAPTER XXY. 
A LITTLE TALK ON BIRDS TOES. 
We have seen already that a bird’s toes are largely 
connected with its feeding habits, and we have dis- 
cussed rather specially those of the birds of prey, the 
parrots, cuckoos, kingfishers, swifts, ete. Others that 
are equally interesting we have not noticed. 
Let us outline the usual arrangements of the toes, 
using the old terms that were once made so much of 
in classification. 
To begin at the true perchers and 
go backward, there is first the foot with 
three perfect unwebbed toes in front 
and with the rear toe alone behind, and 
completely opposable to the front mid- 
dle one. It is quite 
likely that the ear- 
hest birds had a 
foot something like 
this, though not so 
complete in all its Foot of robin, a typical percher. 
parts. It may 
have come on down to the present unmodified, but 
there are some hints from the study of its tendons 
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