192 ANIMAL MOTION. 



and Wiegmann prefer to believe that it refers to the 

 divisions of the hind and front feet, and Sundevall des- 

 pairingly asserts that the passage is inexplicable. 



The front feet of a living camel are decidedly larger than 

 the hind feet, and there are some minor differences of form, 

 but both are divided similarly. The back part of each foot is 

 curved inwards a little, but is not cleft. It is probable, 

 therefore, that Aristotle is describing the front parts of a 

 camel's foot, and this is assumed in what follows. 



When the upper part of a camel's foot is compared with 

 its sole, it is seen that the length of the parting between the 

 toes, seen from above, is not less than twice that of the 

 parting, as seen from below. The difference is due to the 

 presence of the web, to which also Aristotle refers. Further, 

 looking more closely upon the top of the foot, four parts of 

 the cleft are seen, two on each side, caused by the 

 prominence of the proximal phalanges, and especially of 

 their distal ends ; this is better seen in some camels than in 

 others. Making use of these features in interpreting 

 Aristotle's description, it is probable that the words oVjcrSey 

 and £At7r^o«7$£i/ respectively refer to the sole and the upper 

 part of the foot, and the phrase ett' aKpoj TSTrapa to the two 

 short parts of the toes, as seen on the sole, together with 

 the two long parts, as seen from above. It is possible, 

 but less likely, that the passage refers to the features of the 

 cleft due to the aforesaid prominence of the proximal 

 phalanges. 



The rest of Aristotle's description of the structure of the 

 feet of camels presents no important difficulty, and the sense 

 of the entire description seems to be as follows : " The sole of 

 the foot is cleft as far as the second joint of the toes, and 

 the upper part is cleft about as far as the first joint, there 

 being four parts at the front of the foot, and between the 

 cleft parts is a web, as in geese. The lower part of the foot 

 is fleshy, like the foot of the bear, and, therefore, during 

 warlike operations, riders put coverings on their camel's 

 feet, when these are sore."* 



Aristotle makes some interesting observations on the 

 flight of birds and their so-called tail. He says that all 

 birds which fly high have four toes,f that birds are without 

 a tail but have an orrhopygion, the long-legged and the 

 web-footed birds having a short one and the others a long 



- H. A. ii. c. 2, s. 6, f Ibid. ii. c. 8, s. 2. 



