44 Introduction. 



their feet. The third and last family of the Raptores, viz., the 

 owls, hunting in the dusk of evening and the gray twilight of 

 morning, adopt a different course from their diurnal brethren of 

 prey ; stealing on noiseless wing round the enclosures and over 

 the meadows, they drop suddenly and without warning of their 

 approach on the mouse or other victim, which they bear away in 

 their feet. Their legs and toes are usually covered with downy 

 feathers up to the claws, assisting them in their silent move- 

 ments, and strong enough to carry off any victim which they 

 may seize. In all these carnivorous birds, can anything more 

 perfect be conceived than the feet with which they 'are provided, 

 more fitted to their respective requirements, more thoroughly 

 adapted to their wants ? 



The second order of birds, the ' Perchers,' brings before us 

 quite a different form of foot, but one no less applicable to the 

 habits of the species which compose it ; nay, by many the form 

 of foot herein displayed is considered the most perfect, and 

 perhaps if any degrees of excellence can exist, where all are 

 exactly fitted to their respective uses, the mechanism of the 

 foot of the ' Insessores' may strike us with the greatest admira- 

 tion. The tarsus of all these birds is usually bare of feathers, 

 and the general character of the leg and foot is slight and 

 slender ; the number of toes is invariably four, the hind toe 

 being always present : in some species the claws are very long, 

 but in general they as well as the toes are short, and thus best 

 formed for perching. When, then, we look at these light and 

 delicate legs and feet, 'the skin reduced,' as Buffonwell describes 

 it, ' till it is nothing more than a bony needle/ and then observe 

 the size and weight of the body they have to support, is it not 

 astonishing with what ease and steadiness a bird can perch upon 

 a bough, and balance and uphold itself in that position, even in 

 a high wind ? is it not marvellous how, with the head reposing 

 under the wing and one leg drawn up under the body, it is 

 entirely supported on the other; and resting on so slight a 

 fulcrum, falls asleep, without the least danger of losing its 

 balance ? It is the admirable formation of these delicate 



