^-^ GENERAL ORNITHOLOGY. 



tlie toes are brought forwards, at right angles or thereabouts with the foot, they spread apart 

 from each other automatically in the action, and the diverging toes of the foot thus opened are 

 pressed upon the ground or against the water. When the toes are bent around in the opposite 

 direction, they automatically como together and lie in a bundle more or less parallel with one 

 another, besides being each bent or flexed at their several nodes. The mechanism is best 

 marked in the swunraers, which, for advantageous use of their webbed toes, must present a 

 broad surface to the water in giving the backward stroke, and biing the foot forward with the 

 toes closed, presenting only an edge to the water, — all on the principle of the feathering of oars 

 in rowing. It is carried to an extreme in a loon, where, when the foot is closed, the digit 

 marked 2t in the figure lies below and behind St. It is pn.ibably least marked in birds of 

 prey, which give the clutch with their talons spread. The jointings of the individual phalanges 

 of the toes upon one another are simple hinges, permitting motion of extension to a right line 

 or a little beyond in some cases, M'ith very free flexion in the opposite direction. On the 

 M'hole, the mechanics of a bird's foot are less pecuUar than those of the wing, and quite those 

 of tlie limbs of a quadruped. 



In ordinary hopping, walliing, and running, and in perching as well, only the toes rest upon 

 or grasp the support, from D to beyond, C being more or less vertically over JJ. Such resting 

 of the toes is complete for 2 t, 'i t, i t in the figure, or for all the anterior toes ; but for the Idnd 

 toe it varies according to the length and position of that digit, from complete incumbency, like 

 that of the front toes, to mere touching of the tip of that toe, or not even this ; the hind toe 

 is then sure to be functiouless. But many of tlie lower liirds, such as loons and grebes, cannot 

 stand at all upright on their toes, resting with the heel touching the ground ; and in many such 

 <tases the tail furnishes additional support, making a tripod with the feet, as in the liangaroo. 

 Such birds might be called plantigrade (Lat. planta, the sole ; gradiis, a step) in strict 

 anatomical conformity with the quadrupeds so designated. The others are all digitigrade, 

 standing or walking on their toes alone. But no birds progress on the ends of their toes, or 

 toe-naUs, as hoofed quodrupeds do. A bird's ordinary walking or running is the same as ours, 

 so far as the ordinary mechanics of the motions are concerned ; but its so-called " hopping" is 

 really leaping, both legs moving at once. Most birds, down to Cohimhce, leap when on the 

 ground, a mode of progression characteristic of the higher orders; but many of the more terres- 

 trial Passeres and Accipitres progress by ordinary walking when on the ground, as is invariably 

 the case with parrots, pigeons, gallinaceous birds, and all waders and swimmers. 



The student need scarcely be reassured that, whatever their modifications, their relative 

 development, motions, and postures, the several segments of both fore and hind limbs of any 

 vertebrate, quadruped or biped, feathered or featherless, are fixed in one morphologically iden- 

 tical series, thus: 1, shoulder or hip-joint; 2, upper arm or thigh, humerus or femur; 3, 

 elbow or knee-joint ; 4, fore-arm or leg proper, radius and ulna or tibia and fibula ; 5, wrist, 

 bend of wing, carpus, or heel, ankle, tarsus ; 6, hand proper, metacarpus, or foot proper, 

 metatarsus; 7, digits with their phalanges, of hand cjr foot, fingers or toes. 2, first segment; 

 4, second segment; .5, third segment (not separate in foot of bird) ; 6 and 7, fourth segment, 

 in the vi'ing called manus or piniou, in the leg, pes. Observe the improper naming of parts, 

 in the case of the hind limb, whereby 1, 2, 3, are not generally counted ; 4 is called " thigh " ; 

 .5 is called "knee"; 6 is called "leg" or " shank"; 7 is called "foot." Observe also that in 

 descriptive ornithology 6 is " the tarsu.s." 



The Plumage of the Leg and Foot varies within wide limits. In general, the leg is 

 feathered to the heel, C, and the rest of the limli is bare of feathers. The thigh is always 

 feathered, as part of the body plumage (^pteryla femoralis). The cms or leg proper (thigh of 

 vulgar language, B to C) is feathered in nearly all the higher birds, and in swimming birds 

 \vithout exception ; in the loons, the feathering even extends on the heel-joint. It is among 



