84 ANIMALS: OF THE PAST 
it has been drawn with just a suggestion of 
Archeopteryx about it. 
The most extraordinary thing about Hespe- 
rornis, however, is the position of the legs rela- 
tive to the body, and this is something that 
was not even suspected until the skeleton was 
mounted in a swimming attitude. As anyone 
knows who has watched a duck swim, the usual 
place for the feet and legs is beneath and in a 
line with the body. But in our great extinct 
diver the articulations of the leg bones are such 
that this is impossible, and the feet and lower 
joint of the legs (called the tarsus) must have 
stood out nearly at right angles to the body, 
like a pair of oars. This is so peculiar and 
anomalous an attitude for a bird’s legs that, 
although apparently indicated by the shape of 
the bones, it. was at first thought to be due 
to the crushing and consequent distortion to 
which the bones had been subjected, and an 
endeavor was made to place the legs in the 
ordinary position, even though this was done 
at the expense of some little dislocation of the 
joints. But when the mounting of the skele- 
ton had advanced further it became more 
