XT. MASTER IMPERTINENCE. 163 



parrot whom Master Impertinence so freely criticized. 

 The owl and the hawk, of whom we sparrows will say 

 nothing disparaging, lest they take advantage of us some 

 fine day or summer eve when we are out of town, have 

 great powerful feet, with large, cruel, curved talons. In 

 the hawk the lower part of the leg is scale-covered, and 

 the hinder toe is long ; but in the brown owl this toe is 

 shorter, and the leg and foot are feathered to the insertion 

 of the claws. 



The domestic fowl (whom the sparrow regards with 

 some contempt for having surrendered his freedom to 

 man instead of merely tolerating and taking advantage 

 of him) shows us not a hand but a foot, a terrestrial 

 organ modified for the subsidiary purpose of scratching. 

 This use of the foot for running rather than perching has 

 carried with it a reduction in length of the hind toe. In 

 the fowl and the pheasant this has not been carried very 

 far. But in the daintily-feathered foot of the ptarmigan, 

 feathered not only above but below, the claw of the hind 

 toe is only just visible amid the hair-like covering. And 

 this suppression of the great toe has been carried so far in 

 the golden plover (first cousin to the lapwing or peewit, 

 familiar, I suppose, even to those who are least observant 

 of bird life), that it has disappeared altogether, leaving 

 but three toes to the foot ; as is also the case with the 

 sanderling and other waders. The heron, though a wader, 

 has the hind toe well developed ; but this is on account of 

 his partly arboreal habit. Like others among the waders 

 he has partially webbed feet. But it is in the water-fowl 

 that the palmate or webbed foot, specialized for pro- 

 pulsion in swimming, is best seen. Look at the foot of a 

 duck or a goose, and you will see the three toes, between 

 the ample spread of which the membrane or web is 

 stretched. The hind toe is small and separate. In the 



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