25 



cillae, or wagtails ; but tlie ornithologists liave no real 

 business to pnt him among them. The swing of the long 

 tail-feathers in the true wagtail is entirely consequent on 

 its motion, not impulsive of it — the tremulous shake is 

 after alighting. But the robin leaps with wing, tail, and 

 foot, all in time, and all helping each other. Leaps, I 

 say ; and you check at the word ; and ought to check : 

 you look at a bird hopping, and the motion is so much a 

 matter of course, you never think how it is done. But 

 do you think you would find it easy to hop like a robin if 

 you had two — all but wooden — legs, like this ? 

 - 26. I have looked ^^diolly in vain through all my books 

 on birds, to find some account of the muscles it uses in 

 hopping, and of the part of the toes with which the spring 

 is given. I must leave you to find out that for yourselves ; 

 it is a little bit of anatomy which I think it highly desira- 

 ble for you to know, but which it is not my business to 

 teach you. Only observe, this is the j)oint to be made 

 out. You leap yourselves, with the toe and ball of the 

 foot ; but, in that power of leaping, you lose the faculty 

 of grasp ; on the contrary, with your hands, you grasp as 

 a bird with its feet. But you cannot hop on your hands. 

 A cat, a leopard, and a monkey, leap or grasp with ecpial 

 ease ; but the action of their paws in leaping is, I ima- 

 gine, from the fleshy ball of the foot ; Avhile in the bird, 

 characteristically ya/jiyfrcovu^, this fleshy ball is reduced to 

 a boss or series of bosses, and the nails are elongated 

 into sickles or horns ; nor does the springing power seem 



