BI 



This want of firmness in walking arises from the 

 absence of the connecting membrane at the bases of 

 the toes, and also from the toes themselves having 

 more play at their articulations. But the very same 

 circumstances render it much more efficient as a 

 perching foot ; and while the gallinaceous birds can, 

 in general, only roost across a perch of considerable 

 thickness, many of the free-toed birds can hang in 

 all positions, and by one foot or both, as need may 

 be, from a slender vibrating stem. 



Generally speaking, the omnivorous birds are the 

 best walkers, and those which cat small seeds from 

 the stems of plants the best pcrchers ; but there are 

 exceptions. The rook is one of the best walkers ; 

 and the tits are among the most dexterous perchers : 

 so that their feet may be taken as examples. 



R D. 441 



this structure ; and thev ail sing on the perch, and 

 not on the ground or the wing. 



Syndactylicfeet. These have all the three front 

 toes united together. They feed chiefly on the 

 wing, use the perch only for rest, and walk little on 

 the ground, for which the form of their feet very ill 

 adapts them, though they usually have their nests in 

 holes, and often in holes excavated by themselves, 

 for the digging of which their united and spade-like 

 feet are by no means ill adapted. The foot of the 

 kingfisher will illustrate this structure. 



Rook and Blue Tit. 



Feet better adapted for perching than walking. Birds 

 with feet of this description are generally those 

 tribes, wholly or chiefly insectivorous, which seek their 

 food partly on the ground and partly on the leaves 

 of trees ; which are generally seen on trees and 

 bushes, but which perch generally, and have no pecu- 

 liar mode of action on the trees. This foot has three 

 toes before and one behind, but the outer front toe is 

 more or less joined to the middle one at its base 

 sometimes at the base only, and sometimes as far, or 

 nearly as far, as the first joint. This structure of foot 

 gives the bird more firmness when perching across a 

 twig than those birds have in whose feet all the toes 

 are free ; but they have not so much action on their 

 perch, and cannot swing about so much as the birds 

 with free toes ; and they are by no means so good 

 walkers. There are, however, considerable differences 

 among them ; as, for instance, the song-thrush, which 

 finds its food on the ground, is rather a good walker, 

 while the crested wrens, which reside almost con- 

 stantly in trees, have not much less command of 

 themselves than the tits. The feet of these two 

 species will serve as illustrations. 



Song Thrush and Golden Crested Wren. 

 All the migrant, and some of the resident warblers, 

 which sing from the groves and copses, and make the 

 vernal season so lively with their music, have feet of 



Kingfisher. 



Crab feet. These are feet of a very peculiar 

 structure, to which writers on ornithology have given 

 no name ; and yet they are distinct from any other 

 feet, and their mode of action is very peculiar. They 

 belong to the Fis&irostres of Cuvicr the Clididoniau 

 birds, or swallow tribe, which are so well marked, and 

 so distinct from all others, both in their structure and 

 their habits, that they ought not only to stand as a 

 separate family, but as a separate order ; and the three 

 genera, of which the group is composed, are so 

 different from each other, that each ought, in strict 

 propriety, to form a separate group, or even sub- 

 order. 



The birds to which they nave the nearest resem- 

 blance are the fly-catchers, but the resemblance is 

 not a very close one, except in some of the foreign 

 species of goat-sucker ; and then, so far as the habits 

 are known, even these are very different. 



All the three leading organs, the bills, the wings, 

 and the feet, are so peculiar in these birds, that 

 almost any of them might be made the ground of 

 classification. The wings are the most powerful part 

 of the organisation, more especially of the diurnal 

 ones ; but even the feet are very characteristic. They 

 are not walking or perching feet, they are simply 

 adhering ones; and though both the tarsi and the 

 toes are comparatively small and feeble, they are 

 very beautifully adapted for retaining their hold, be 

 the position of the body what it may. 



Though the description of prey is very different, 

 and the feet are probably never used in the capture 

 or the killing of it, yet there is a remarkable analogy 

 in habit between these birds and the birds of prey ; 

 and this analogy holds even in the division into two 

 sections. All the swallow tribe are diurnal feeders, 

 feeding wholly upon insects, and capturing them on 

 the wing only,and by the snap of the bill, the sound of 

 which may be often heard when the birds are on the 

 chase. They are thus hawks, only they are hawks 

 in miniature ; and there is nearly the same distinc- 

 tion between the swifts and swallows as there is be- 

 tween the falcons and the short winged hawks. The 

 habits of the nocturnal ones are not so well known, as 

 the habits of nocturnal birds are much less open to 

 observation than those of diurnal ones ; and, there- 

 fore, it is not ascertained in what manner they cap- 



