A BIRD'S FOOT 



YOU will agree with me, after you have studied a 

 bird's foot, that it is one of Nature's most won- 

 derful contrivances, so admirably adapted for 

 the purposes to which it is devoted that one cannot help 

 feeling that a Divine Mind must have planned it, just as 

 a man would make a watch for the express purpose of 

 keeping time. 



But what is properly included in a bird's foot? Here 

 we shall have to correct a popular mistake, if we wish to 

 be accurate, in the scientific sense of the term. Most 

 people think that the avian foot consists only of the toes 

 and claws, or the part that comes in direct contact with 

 the ground or the perch. That, however, is an error, for the 

 foot really comprises, in addition to the toes and claws, 

 the first long bone of the limb, reaching from the base 

 of the digits to the first joint. You will see, therefore, 

 that the bird walks on its toes, not on its foot as a whole. 



The long bone referred to called the tarsus - 

 corresponds to the instep of the human foot, that is, the 

 foot proper, while the joint which extends backward, 

 forming an angle with the next large bone, is really the 

 bird's heel. Thus you perceive that most birds walk 

 with their heels high in the air. What most people call 



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