CHAPTER VII 



BIRDS WITH A HANDICAP 



(Goatsuckers and Hummers) 



NED thinks he is going to stick me this morning. 

 He wants to know why the order of birds which 

 includes the goatsuckers, hummers and swifts 

 is called "Macrochires," which the book says means 

 long-handed, that is, long-winged, and the gulls are 

 called "Longipennes," which means long-winged, too. 

 I told him the last was derived from the Latin and 

 the other from the Greek language. But this did not 

 satisfy him. He thinks the gulls are well named, but 

 not the others, because among the land birds the swal- 

 lows are long-winged, too, and the birds of prey, and 

 that "small-footed" would have been a better name, 

 because all these species have small, weak legs and feet. 

 The goatsuckers perch along a branch because their 

 feet are too weak to clasp it easily, and the swifts can 

 only cling, while the hummers, though they can perch, 

 have frail enough little "hands." I had to admit that 

 there was a good deal of reason in what he said and 

 told him I hoped that some day, when he had become 

 a great scientist, he would have some things changed. 

 Meanwhile, now, since we are getting up a book of our 



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