42 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



stances, as grain, nuts, and seeds, on which the birds 

 very largely feed. 



The wings are generally short and rounded, and the 

 flight, while often extremely swift, is more or less heavy 

 and labored and seldom greatly protracted. In some 

 species certain feathers of the wing are enormously 

 developed. 



The tail varies extremely. In some species it is very 

 long and pointed, in others extremely short ; again nar- 

 row but long, or less long and very wide. In the pea- 

 cock, one of the large and showy pheasants, the coverts 

 of the tail greatly exceed the quills in length. In the 

 domestic fowl the tail develops a number of oddities. 

 In the blackcock the quills on the outer sides are curi- 

 ously bent outward, whence one of its names, Lyrurus 

 lyre-tailed. 



In the grouse and the partridges, the metatarsus, that 

 portion of the "leg" which is without the body, and 

 which in most birds is not covered with feathers but 

 scales, is short, whereas in such birds as the turkey or 

 the pheasant it is relatively much longer. This so-called 

 leg is really a part of the bird's foot, and corresponds to 

 that part of the foot in man which lies between the 

 ankle and the toes, and in the horse to that portion 

 which lies between the hock and the pastern the can- 

 non bone. 



In the pheasants, quails and partridges the feet are 

 naked, but in the grouse they are always more or less 

 protected by a covering of hairlike feathers, not un- 

 like those found on the feet of certain hawks and owls. 



