CLEANLINESS. 17 



vermin, particularly about the head, and are provided 

 with a comb on the inner edge of the middle claw, 

 with which they are often employed in ridding them- 

 selves of these pests when in a state of captivity*." 

 White, of Selborne, on the other hand (with whose 

 account Wilson does not seem to have been acquainted), 

 was persuaded that the serratures in the claw of the 

 European night-jar were designed to enable it to 

 secure beetles (Zantheumia solstitialis, &c.), on 

 which he 'observed it preying. " The circumstance," 

 he says, " that pleased me most was, that I saw it 

 distinctly, more than once, put out its short leg when 

 on the wing, and, by a bend of the head, deliver 

 somewhat into its mouth. If it takes any part of its 

 prey with its foot, as I have now the greatest reason 

 to suppose it does these chafers, I no longer wonder 

 at the use of its middle toe, which is curiously fur- 

 nished with a serrated clawf." Mr. Dillon has re- 

 cently argued with considerable plausibility against 

 this conjecture of White's, considering the chief use 

 of the serrated claw to be the combing or dressing the 

 bristles (Vibrissce). For this purpose, he thinks the 

 entire mechanism of the leg, foot, toe, and claw, 

 adapted with wonderful precision; while for the seiz- 

 ing of beetles there does not appear the least suit 

 ability. The middle toe, he says, compared with the 



Night-jar's foot, showing the pectinated claw. 



* Wilson, Amer. Ornith. vi. 97, 2d ed. 

 t Letter 47. 



c3 



