26 LOVE 8 MEINIE. 



to depend on the development of the bosses. They are 

 far more developed in an eagle than a robin ; but you 

 Inww how unpardonably and preposteroiisly awkward an 

 eagle is when he hops. When they are most of all devel- 

 oped, the bird walks, runs, and digs well, but leaps badly. 



27. I have no time to speak of the various forms of the 

 ankle itself, or of the scales of armour, more apparent 

 than real, by which tlie foot and ankle are protected. 

 The use of this lecture is not either to describe or to 

 exhibit these varieties to 3^ou, but so to awaken your atten- 

 tion to the real points of character, that, when you have a 

 bird's foot to draw, you may do so with intelligence and 

 pleasure, knowing whether you want to express force, 

 gi'asp, or firm ground pressure, or dexterity and tact in 

 motion. And as the actions of the foot and the hand in 

 man are made by every great painter perfectly expressive 

 of the character of mind, so the expressions of rapacity, 

 cruelty, or force of seizure, in the harpy, the grj-phon, and 

 the hooked and clawed evil spirits of early religious art, 

 can only be felt l)y extreme attention to the oi'iginal form, 



28. And now I return to our main question, for the 

 robin's breast to answer, "What is a feather?" You know 

 something about it already ; that it is ccnnposed of a 

 quill, with its lateral filaments, terminating generally, 

 inore or less, in a point ; that these extremities of the 

 (juills, lying over each other like tlie tiles of a house, 

 all()W tlie wind and rain to pass over them with the least 

 possible resistance, and (nnii a }>rotection alike frum the 



