Feet and Legs 



389 



a web of skin which, when swimming, offers a large area 

 of resistance to the water when the foot is pushed back- 

 ward. The chick in the egg has a shadow-membrane 

 of his fish-like ancestors between his toes, and in these 

 water-birds the web of skin continues throughout life. In 

 the terns or sea-swallows, which swim much less than 

 they fly, the web is excised, or scalloped out deeply, a 

 return to an almost semipalmated condition. 



Fig. 305. — Rough-legged Hawk in ))osition of defence. 



A duck or swan out of sheer laziness will often hold 

 one foot up out of the water and propel itself with the 

 other, slightly altering the angle at which the web meets 

 the water, so as to maintain a perfectly direct course. 

 There is a little-known habit which I have frequently 

 observed in captive ducks and several times in wild ones, 

 of swimming thus with one foot when both eyes are shut 

 and the bird is apparently fast asleep. But, in such a 



