PROPORTIONS AND COVERING OF THE LEG. 45 
feathers are almost always short and inconspicuous; sometimes long and 
flowing, as in nearly all the hawks, our tree-cuckoos, ete. The ¢arsus in the 
vast majority of birds is naked of feathers; it is so in all the higher Jnses- 
sores, with very few exceptions (as in the swift family, for instance), in all 
waders, without exception, and in all swimmers with the single exception of 
the frigate bird (Zachypetes, gen. 277), and here the feathering is not com- 
plete. The Raptores and the Galline give us the most feathered tarsi. Thus 
feathering is the rule, among the owls (Sérigide) ; frequent (either partial 
or complete) in hawks and eagles, as the genera Aguila (161) Archibu- 
teo (160) and Buteo (159). All our grouse, as distinguished from the 
turkeys and partridges of the same order, have the tarsus more or less 
feathered. The foes are feathered in few birds; but we have fine examples 
of this, in the snowy owl, and all the ptarmigan. Partial feathering of the 
tarsus is often continued further down to or on the toes by sparse modi- 
fied bristly feathers; this is well illustrated in the barn owl. When incom- 
plete, the feathering is usually wanting Jehind and below; being almost 
invariably continuous above with the crural feathering. But, in that spirit 
of delight that birds show in proving every rule we make about them by 
furnishing exceptions to it, the tarsus is sometimes partly feathered without 
connection with the general plumage above. A curious example is afforded 
by the bank swallow, with its little tuft of feathers at the base of the hind 
toe; and some varieties of the barnyard fowl sprout monstrous leggings of 
feathers from the side of the tarsus. 
§ 75. Tae Lenetra or tHe Lea, compared with the size of the bird, is 
extremely variable. A thrush or a sparrow probably represents about an 
average in this respect. The shortest-legged known bird is probably the 
frigate, just mentioned; a yard long, more or less, it has a tibia not half as 
long as the skull, and a tarsus under an inch. The leg is very short in the 
order Strisores, as among humming-birds, swifts, goatsuckers, kingfishers, 
trogons, etc.; while the swallows, of Oscines, are like swifts in this 
respect. It is likewise pretty short among Scansores. The leg is also 
“short” in all swimmers; the femur especially being very short, and the 
tarsus likewise ; while the toes, bearing their broad webs, are longer. The 
leg lengthens in lower Jnsessores, as most hawks, and especially among 
some of the terrestrial pigeons. It is still longer among the walkers; and 
reaches its maximum among the waders, especially the larger kinds, as fla- 
mingoes, cranes, storks and herons, among all of which it is accompanied 
by corresponding increase in length of the neck. Probably the longest 
legged of all birds for its size is the stilt (Himantopus, 197). It is seen 
from the above, that, taking the tarsus alone, as an index of the whole com- 
parative length of the leg, this is in the frigate bird under one thirty-sixth 
of the total length; a flamingo, four feet long, has a tarsus one foot; a stilt, 
fourteen inches long, a tarsus four inches; so the maximum and minimum of 
length of tarsus are represented by nearly thirty, and under three, per cent. 
of the bird’s whole length. 
