220 VIOLET PLANTAIN-EATER. 



account and figure the Doctor subsequently became 

 acquainted with, speaks of and represents the feet as 

 insessorial, that is, formed after the manner of ordi- 

 nary perching birds. Both these accounts, however, 

 in different degrees, are incorrect. There are, in- 

 deed, three anterior toes, all of which appear to be 

 placed so directly forward as to be incapable of any 

 turning; and this conclusion would be arrived at, 

 even by a professed ornithologist, who contented 

 himself with examining the foot in a dried state ; 

 but when it is relaxed, so that all the joints be- 

 come as flexible as in the living bird, the true 

 nature of its structure becomes apparent. The an- 

 terior outer toe is then seen to possess the power of 

 being very slightly turned outwards, so as to de- 

 scribe the eighth part of a circle, but not more ; for 

 it is kept within this range by a conspicuous mem- 

 brane, which actually unites it to the base of the 

 middle toe, and demonstrates the utter impossibi- 

 lity of this toe being, as it is always described, ver- 

 satile, any more than that of the falcon tribe, nearly 

 all of which are constructed on the very same 

 principle. 



This remarkable formation is evidently intended 

 to confer superior powers of grasping; just as the 

 lateral inclination of the human thumb enables a 

 person to grasp an ohject much more firmly than if 

 it was on the same level with the other four fingers. 

 The ordinary position of the toes is that of all perch- 

 ing birds ; but when the bird is grasping a bough, 



