BEAK OF BIRDS. 2J3 



The strong and muscular legs of the gallinaceous birds, 

 with three toes before, furnished with short, blunt,, and robust 

 nails, render them good service in scratching up their food, 

 which mostly consists of grains and seeds; 

 while the slender and short feet of the per- 

 chers, being more especially adapted to the 

 delicate labours of nidification, have flexible 

 and moderately-elongated toes, with long, 

 pointed, and slightly-curved claws. FootofaPercher. 



The beak of birds shows us, in its various forms, the same 

 wisdom of plan and construction. In the birds of prey it 

 is strong, curved, sharp-edged, and sharp- 

 pointed, and often armed with a lateral 

 tooth ; in the eagles, however, where it is 

 destined to lacerate a living prey, and has 

 consequently to overcome a greater resist- 

 ance, it is more powerful than in the carrion-feeding vultures ; 

 and were we to examine all the species of the raptores, from 

 the smallest falcon to the imperial eagle, and from the burrow- 

 ing owl to the highflying condor, we should find that in every 

 case it is exactly suited in strength and form to the bird's pecu- 

 liar prey or food. In the woodpeckers, the end of the large and 

 strong bill is sharp and formed like a wedge, so as to be able to 

 pierce the bark of trees, and penetrate through the outside sound 

 wood of the tree to the inside decayed part, where the food is 

 lodged ; and in the parrots, we find the upper mandible termi- 

 nating in a strong tooth, and curving over the smaller lower 

 mandible, equally well adapted for cracking the hardest nuts. 



Those sea-birds which live upon fishes too large to be swal- 

 lowed whole, have compressed beaks, with sharp edges, and a 

 hooked extremity similar to that of the birds of prey, where, 

 however, it is comparatively shorter and stronger ; while in the 

 storks and cranes, which feed on smaller fishes and reptiles, it is 

 generally straight, and longer than the head, like a pair of 

 tongs a form well adapted for seizing a prey that seeks con- 

 cealment on a muddy ground. The hardness of the bill 

 invariably corresponds with the resistance to be overcome ; 

 thus in the larger species of woodpeckers it acquires the 

 hardness of ivory, while it changes to a soft skin in those 



