198 BILLS OF THE FISSIBOSTBES. 



the anisodactylic feet is not much more perfect, for 

 in some, as in the nuthatch and creeper, it is a most 

 efficient climbing foot, yet in others it resembles 

 more the common foot of many of the insectivorous 

 birds. 



BILLS OF THE FISSIB08TRES. 



As all these birds use the bill, and the bill only, 

 in the capture of their prey, and as they catch it 

 on the wing, the bill affords a very good general 

 character. They are all feeders upon insects, and 

 generally capture them by speed of flight. They 

 fly at smaller game, and capture it only with the 

 bill; but they admit of a division into diurnal 

 and nocturnal, something resembling that of the 

 birds of prey. The diurnal ones are the swifts and 

 swallows, the former the longest flighted of birds and 

 the most unwearied on the wing. The latter soft 

 and loose feathered, and rather clumsy in their flight, 

 as is the case with the owls. This subdivision con- 



tains the goat-suckers and the Podargi, some species 

 of which bear a resemblance to some of the owls, and 

 have stronger bills than the rest of the family. 



