45-2 



BIRD. 



principal fascinations, and he who would secure her 

 favour must woo her as a bride, which, both in the 

 fact and the figure, is the only path in which pleasure 

 and profit are inseparable. 



Feel of the Longipennes, or long-winged birds. As 

 the birds of this group all depend more on the wing 

 than the feet for the aquatic part of their food, and 

 as many of them alight on the water chiefly, or exclu- 

 sively, for the purposes of rest, and not of feeding, 

 they have less of positive character in their feet than 

 the swimming and diving birds, and less even than 

 those birds which, like the gannet, use the feet in 

 working upward to take the wing. These feet are 

 accordingly less stout in the tarsi, and less produced 

 in the toes and webs, and they are without the oblique 

 motions, and have the toes and webs turned nearly in 

 the direction of the front : the outer and inner of nearly 

 the same length, and the middle one little different. 

 The webs, too, are much narrower in proportion to 

 the length of the toes than in the swimming birds, 

 and the hind toe always very short, sometimes a 

 mere tubercle, or a rudimental nail, but differently 

 placed according to the habit. 



These birds can all swim, and most of them ride 

 very buoyant on the water, and they sometimes feed 

 as well as rest there ; but as their neck is short, and 

 they do not dive, they command a very limited range 

 of the water when they are on its surface. One prin- 

 cipal use of their feet is in alighting and rising from 

 the water, which they do more readily than any other 

 birds. They come down with a twitch, halt on the 

 surface, and are on the wing again almost in an 

 instant. In alighting, they advance the feet flat under 

 the body, with the anterior edge of the webs in 

 advance of the centre of gravity ; and as the princi- 

 pal joints act parallel to the mesial plane, the least 

 exertion in pushing down the webbed feet, reacting 

 on" the centre of gravity, and raising it a little back- 

 ward as well as upward, throws the bird so clear of 

 the water, that its open wings take the air and it is 

 instantly in the sky. All this is accomplished with- 

 out occasioning the least splash or disturbance of the 

 water ; whereas those birds which feed on or in that 

 element, and use the wing only in journeying from 

 place to place, always make a splash when they 

 alight, and have some trouble before they get on the 

 wing. The length of the tarsus is the principal cha- 

 racter of the foot, by which those of different habits 

 may be distinguished. It is, of course, longest in those 

 which walk most on the ground, whether inland or 

 along the beaches, and gradually shorter in propor- 

 tion as they are more exclusively occupied in skim- 

 ming over the surface of the sea. 



The gulls have it the longest, but it is slender and 

 a portion above the tarsal joint is bare of feathers. Their 

 front toes and webs are of moderate length ; but the 

 hind toe is very short, without any web, and articulated 

 higher up than the front ones. The feet are placed 

 considerably forward ; and although there is an obli- 

 quity of the tibiae which throws the tarsal joints a 

 little outwards, the birds walk with less of a rolling 

 motion than any of the swimming birds. 



The skuas have the feet nearly of the same form ; 

 but the hinder toe is a mere tubercle, articulated on the 

 eame plane with the front toes. They also have the 

 claws considerably hooked, which agrees v/ith the 

 raven-like habit of the birds, which displays itself in 

 eating carrion, and plundering the nests of birds which 

 build in the banks ; and which they have in addition 



to their peculiar and more characteristic habit of 

 attacking other birds (gulls chiefly) and making them 

 deliver up the contents of their stomachs. The length 

 and crookedness of the claws might lead to the sup- 

 position that the skuas, which are very bold birds, use 

 these instiuments as hawks do ; but such is not the 

 case, though they may assist the birds in holding-on 

 upon oily carcasses which they find floating in the 

 sea, or on land carrion, to which they have no objec- 

 tion, if it comes in their way. Some of them also eat 

 crustaceous animals and shelled mollusca ; and they 

 may very naturally be supposed to hold these with 

 the claws while they break or divide them with the 

 strong bill. The annexed is the foot of the common 

 species. 



Common Skua. 



The terns, which have very much the form of the 

 swallow tribe in the body, the wings, and the tail, and 

 also in style of flight, though the bill and the food are 

 different, have the tarsi shorter, and the feet altogether 

 smaller than any others of the group. They at the 

 same time, however, preserve a certain degree of 

 likeness to the gulls, and, like these, many of them 

 are discovered inland upon the fresh waters. 



Terns are the birds most peculiarly adapted for 

 twitching small prey out of the water, which they do 

 with wonderful celerity; and their feet, with very 

 short tarsi, and articulated forwards upon the body, 

 enable them to alight and arise in the swift and easy 

 manner formerly alluded to. Their front toes are all 

 nearly of equal length, their hind toe very small, free, 

 and pointing downwards. 



Tlie petrels have the feet with the tarsi considera- 

 bly longer than those of the terns, and generally com- 

 pressed in the direction of their action. They have 

 three toes to the front, webbed like those of the terns, 

 and a small claw in place of the hind toe. These 

 feet are, like those of the others, only auxiliary to the 

 principal natural action which is performed by the 

 wings, and they are adapted to a different sort of 

 flight. The terns, though not birds of lofty flight, 

 fly moderately high, and catch those substances upon 

 which they feed by twitching down, snapping with 

 the bill, and instantly rising again. The petrels skim 

 along the surface, and pick up the lighter substances 

 without altering their motion. On these occasions 

 they often, but not always, tip the water with the 

 webs of their feet, to aid the motion of the wings, or 

 sometimes to render it unnecessary. The length and 

 compressed form of the tarsi fit them well for this 

 purpose, while their lightness of structure, in pro- 

 portion to the strength of the muscles by which they 

 are put in motion, enables them to move with great 

 celerity, and yet occasion little fatigue. At the same 

 time, the action of tipping is done in so clean a style, 

 that the water is not disturbed, and the motion of the 

 legs is not seen unless when the observer is very close 



