CHAPTER XI 



THE PALMIPEDES 



" flpHE workman is known by his tools, and by the 

 JL tools of the feathered creatures that is to say, 

 their beaks and claws their way of life is not less 

 easily recognized. If it were not already known to 

 us, who could fail to infer the carnivorous disposi- 

 tion of the hawk from the shape of its beak short, 



sharp, and hooked 

 and from the structure 

 of its talons, armed as 

 they are with pointed 

 nails grooved under- 

 neath with a narrow 



^ ^<i^w >r*^ channel after the man- 



ner of certain daggers, 

 _ to facilitate the flow of 



blood from the wound? 



Does it call for any extraordinary perspicacity to 

 recognize, in the heron's long legs, veritable stilts 

 which enable it to traverse, step by step, without 

 getting wet, the inundated flats, as does the hunter 

 in his long, waterproof marsh boots? And then, 

 that long beak, pointed like a nail, does it tell us 

 nothing? Does it not say that the bird bores deep 



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