Vol i'909" VI ] Townsend, Position of Birds' Feet in Flight. 113 



position it soars or executes any flight of more than a few yards. 

 When it flies but a short distance it does not have time, or it does 

 not take the trouble, to draw up its feet behind, but carries them in 

 front to be ready to drop them when it alights. In quick turns I 

 have seen them drop their feet a short distance from the tail, so 

 that daylight could be seen between, as has already been described 

 in the case of the Gulls. One I was watching dropped its legs 

 so that they hung straight down for a few seconds, and were then 

 extended behind again. In alighting the feet are thrown forward, 

 generally at the last moment. 



Raptores. About the position of the feet in the Birds of Prey 

 there has been from time to time considerable discussion, although 

 the matter was apparently settled in the pages of 'The Ibis' in 

 1894 and 1895, when the Editor, after reviewing an article on the 

 subject by Hartert (11), asked whether British ornithologists 

 agreed with the author. Hartert (9) stated that he was convinced 

 that all birds of prey carried their legs behind in flight, and the 

 same habit had been recorded the year before by Ziemer (20). 

 This observation was confirmed by Sclater (17), Barrett-Hamilton 

 (2), Meade- Waldo (14) and Cordeaux (6), each having noted this 

 habit in one or more species. Meade-Waldo had also observed 

 it in trained Falcons. Hartert (12), in a later article on the subject, 

 quoted E. C. Stuart Baker and Ogilvie Grant as sustaining him 

 against the popular idea that the feet are carried in front. He also 

 states that Kestrels when about to strike carry their legs forward 

 and extended, and this is doubtless true of other Hawks. Barrett- 

 Hamilton (3) says that while the normal position of the feet of 

 Kites is backwards, still he "feels sure that Kites, like Gulls, can 

 use either the backward or the forward position." 



When the new U. S. twenty dollar gold piece appeared in 1907 

 with the design by St. Gaudens of an Eagle in flight, its legs behind, 

 a protest went up. A writer in the Boston 'Transcript' said: 

 "Whoever saw an eagle in flight with its legs trailing behind it 

 like a heron?," thus voicing the popular idea that the legs are 

 carried in front. 



My own observations on this point in Birds of Prey are limited 

 to the Osprey, Sparrow, Marsh, Rough-legged and Red-shouldered 

 Hawks. At Bristol, R. I., the Ospreys are semi-domesticated, 



