BIRD, 



4-17 



like candour in others, and thus we win the applause 

 of the whole world, without any admixture of that 

 envy or jealousy, which is just as apt to follow a false 

 discovery as a true one ; and besides, we leave un- 

 cloyed, and in full vigour, that appetite by which 

 alone we may come at the true knowledge. But to 

 return to the scandent feet. 



The foot of the parrot is a foot which climbs by 

 clutching a "tying" foot, as one would say and 

 not one which holds on by a combination of " counter- 

 strains," like that of the woodpecker ; and it is so, in 

 order that the owner may find its food in situations 

 where a woodpecker, or, indeed, any bird d.fferently 

 organised to a parrot, could not subsist. The pasture 

 of the parrot is among the sprays or smaller twigs of 

 large spreading trees, and not exactly at the extremi- 

 ties of them, because the fruit which is fit for the 

 parrot's eating is rather farther in, there being a new 

 shoot beyond the fruit before it is ripe, in most fruit 

 trees, and a new shoot with green fruit, and often 

 another with blossoms beyond it, in many of the fruit 

 trees in parrots' countries. Besides, many of those 

 trees bear their fruit at the axillae of the twigs or 

 leaves ; and as the same point of a vegetable never 

 blooms or fruits twice (so that the most perennial 

 trees in duration are really annuals in their most 

 important functions), the successive fruits or flowers 

 are, even in these, without the place where the 

 parrot feeds. Some of the allied genera- alight on the 

 tops of the trees, but these are the long-tailed ones, 

 which are better winged, more in the habit of flying, 

 and less expert climbers than the true parrots ; and 

 even they do not penetrate so far into the sprays as 

 where the parrot feeds, and they feed upon fruits of 

 a different character fruit of which the pips, not the 

 pulp, is eaten. 



Now, any one who examines a tree, when so cleared 

 of leaves as that the twigs can be seen, must perceive, 

 that at about the situation of the previous year's shoots, 

 the twigs, even when leafless, are so tangled, that no 

 bird half the size of a parrot could use its wings among 

 them, unless to pass through at some opening ; but 

 the parrot has to range the tree in all directions at 

 the very part of it where wings cannot be used; and 

 It has to range minutely, because there are always 

 leaves upon those trees, and the leaves of tropical 

 trees are often broad and close. Thus, though the 

 parrot is a tree bird, it seeks its food much in the 

 same manner as a partridge seeks among the corn 

 or a grouse among the heather ; that is, by compara- 

 tively slow motion, and prying about on all sides as 

 it goes along. Consequently, the organisation mosi 

 essential to this habit is the one which enables it to 

 get most readily from twig to twig without the use o 

 its wings in any other way than partially opened to 

 assist in keeping its balance. 



The foot, to possess this property, must have the 

 whole of its prehensile action in the toes ; and the 

 leg, instead of maintaining one invariable position 

 in assisting the foot in holding on, must be free to 

 move to its utmost stretch in all directions. It is also 

 evident, that unless the parrot could hold on by on 

 foot, and hold on with that foot in any direction 

 above it, below it, or laterally, it could not make its 

 way ; and even in addition to this, the bill of tin 

 parrot is prehensile, and affords the same assist 

 anoe to the feet as the prehensile tails of thos< 

 climbing mammalia and reptiles which have tha 

 character. 



To accomplish these purposes, the joints in the leg 

 nd foot of the parrot must have rolling or oblique 

 notions, in order that, while it holds on with the one 

 oot, it may extend the other as far as its length will 

 ermit in any direction ; and it is especially necessary 

 hat the joint at the articulation of the toes should 

 urn the foot outwards, because that is the best 

 )osition for its readily laying hold. When the neces- 

 ity that there is for its action is known, the action 

 tself may be easily inferred from inspection of the 

 annexed figure. 



Parrot. 



Swimming Feet. There are not so many diversities 

 of form in the feet of aquatic birds as in those which 

 inhabit the land, whether they seek their food on the 

 earth itself, or upon vegetable substances. The 

 element is the same, or nearly the same, in all water 

 birds, so that the only thing which remains to which 

 the feet have to be adapted is the difference in habit 

 among the birds themselves. There is, however, one 

 difference of element which requires a corresponding 

 modification of the foot : there are some birds which 

 are very exclusively in the water, and, as such, water 

 birds, in the form of their bodies and the manner in 

 which their feet are articulated ; but they frequent 

 those waters which are full of the stems of reeds and 

 other aquatic plants, among which the structure of 

 foot which is best for action in the clear or open 

 water, would, of course, not be the most convenient. 

 The foot for action in the open water is a continuous 

 web of membrane between the toes, which varies with 

 the habit of the bird ; but among stems this web 

 could not he so conveniently used, as it would be 

 liable to get entangled or interrupted, if not torn. 

 Accordingly, these birds have the toes only lobed, so 

 that they can be drawn through between the stems 

 with the less opposition. Some of the birds which 

 have these partake of the character of shore or bank 

 birds, and can walk upon the land as well as swim 

 upon the water. These arc the coots and phalaropes, 

 which continue the succession from the gallinules, 

 which, through the landrails, have some relation to cer- 

 tain species of the gallinaceous birds. They, when on 

 land, carry the axis of the body in nearly a horizontal 

 position ; and the lobes on their toes are divided into 

 segments answering to the phalanges. Of these the 

 foot of the common coot is an instance. 



Grebes, though chiefly frequenters of fresh water 

 lakes, huve much more aquatic habits. They have 

 the body of the true canoe shape, and the legs arti- 

 culated so far backwards, that they cannot support 

 the axis of the body in a horizontal position upon 

 land. They accordingly walk with the spine nearly 

 erect ; they walk with difficulty, and are never found 

 far from the water. Their feet have complete lobes 

 to all the toes, and even the tarsus is flattened, and 

 has a membranous margin, so that the foot is a swin- 



