﻿52 Bird -Lore 



forms of feathered life. The real foot of a bird, as the term is used in speaking 

 of the foot of other animals, extends to the backward bending joint, or heel. 

 Part of the lower leg is concealed by the feathers and skin, while the upper 

 leg, or thigh, is generally wholly within the body. 



The Crow, in many respects standing near the top of the scale of bird-life, 

 nevertheless has found it good to hold to the typical bird's foot. And indeed 

 it serves him well, for with it he can walk on snow or ice, wade in shallow 

 water, perch in trees, scratch or claw the ground, and hold down a crab 

 shell while he extracts the edible portion. Not only this, but he can hop like 

 a Sparrow or walk like a Chicken at will. 



No hard and fast rules can be laid down, but it is generally the case that 

 birds which are especially at home in the trees usually hop with both feet 

 simultaneously on the ground. Ground -nesters and feeders, such as the 

 Meadowlark, Quail and Vesper Sparrow, walk or run. 



The great order of perching birds shows to what varied uses the typical 

 foot can be put. All birds of this order have three toes in front and one 

 behind, and there is scarcely a place on the globe to which these birds have 

 not adapted themselves; and recently too, as would seem probable from the 

 similarity of foot-type running through all. 



The majority of these birds are arboreal, and the strength of the tiny 

 tendons which run down the leg and through each toe is sufficient to clasp 

 and unclasp a thousand times a day, and to hold and balance the bird on 

 whatever bending twigs or wind-blown foliage it chances to alight. 



The Creepers are, so to speak, passerine Woodpeckers, and forever wind 

 their spiral paths about the tree-trunks. But the Nuthatch excels all other 

 birds in his climbing ability. With no support whatever from the tail, and 

 without marked adaptation of toes, it defies all laws of gravitation, and creeps 

 up and down or around the vertical tree-trunks as if on level surface. Never 

 a misstep, never a slip, but each foothold as secure as if its feet were vacuum- 

 cupped. 



In the Swallows the feet are very small, having fallen into disuse with the 

 great increase of the power of flight. Orioles and Weaver-birds make occa- 

 sional use of their feet to hold a strand of grass or string, which they are 

 weaving with their beaks into their elaborate nests, and certain Flycatchers 

 pounce upon and hold their insect prey as an Owl grips a bird, or a Jay clings 

 to a nut; but with the exception of a few such cases, the feet of perching 

 birds serve principally the function of locomotion. 



Although the bill is an important organ among the perching birds in 

 procuring food, yet such birds as the Chewink, the White-throated Sparrow 

 and the Jays use their feet to scratch away dead leaves and rubbish in search 

 of small insects. 



There are many curious things about a bird's toes, to which we have not 

 yet found the key. Who can tell why the Horned Larks and some other 



