26 love's meinie. 



to depend on the development of the bosses. They are 

 far more developed in an eagle than a robin ; bnt you 

 know how unpardohably and preposterously awkward an 

 eagle is when he hops. When they are most of all devel- 

 oped, the bird walks, runs, and digs well, bnt leaps badly. 



27. I liave no time to speak of the various forms of the 

 anl^le itself, or of the scales of armour, more apparent 

 than real, by which the foot and ankle are protected. 

 The use of this lecture is not either to describe or to 

 exliibit these varieties to you, but so to awaken your atten- 

 tion to the real points of character, that, when you have a 

 bird's foot to draw, you may do so with intelligence and 

 pleasure, knowing whether you want to express force, 

 grasp, or firm ground pressure, or dexterity and tact in 

 motion. And as the actions of the foot and the hand in 

 ]nan are made by every great painter perfectly expressive 

 of the character of mind, so the expressions of rapacity, 

 cruelty, or force of seizure, in the harpy, the gryphon, and 

 the hooked and clawed evil spirits of early religious art, 

 can only be felt by extreme attention to the oi-iglnal form. 



28. And now .1 return to our main question, for the 

 robin's breast to answer, "What is a feather? " You know 

 something about it already ; that it is composed of a 

 quill, with its lateral filaments, terminating generally, 

 more or less, in a point ; that these extremities of the 

 quills, lying over each other like the tiles of a house, 

 allow the wind and rain to pass over them with the least 

 possible resistance, and form a protection alike from the 



