42 



THE BONES. 



btiited Plover. 



forwards, so as to make the front part of the joint c 

 touch the ground, as it would be for us to bend the leg- 

 bone forward below the knee. The remaining portion, 

 then, c D, of the bird's limb, when compared with the 

 similar part in our own leg, ought to be called its ancle, 

 and so in truth it is. This may be more easily under- 

 stood, by referring to a very extraordinary-looking bird, 

 sometimes, though very rarely, seen in England, called 

 the Stilted Plover, (Charadrius himantopus,) from the 

 strange disproportion of its legs, a figure of which is 

 annexed, and of which No. 2 may be considered as an 

 illustration; in which an inexperienced observer will at 

 first sight not easily persuade himself that c D is nothing 

 more than the ancle, and the back part of the joint c its 

 heel: yet so it is, as the reader will at once perceive in 

 the above figure, where the bird is represented in its 

 usual, and what may be called, kneeling position ; the 

 real knee, corresponding with B in fig. 2, of the leg 

 being partly hid in the feathers, and the bend of the 

 leg beneath the tail corresponding with c, the remaining 

 part from that point to the claws answering to our foot 

 and toes. 



