PROPOETIONS AND COVERING OF THE LEG. 45 



feathers are almost always short and inconspicuous ; sometimes long and 

 flowing, as in nearly all the hawks, our tree-cuckoos, etc. The fai-sus in the 

 vast majority of birds is naked of feathers ; it is so in all the higher Inses- 

 sores, with very few exceptions (as in the swift family, for instance), in all 

 waders, without exception, and in all swimmers with the single exception of 

 the frigate bird (Taclnjj^etes, gen. 277), and here the feathering is not com- 

 plete. The Raptoixs and the GaUince give us the most feathered tarsi. Thus 

 feathering is the rule, among the owls (SlrigidcB) ; frequent (either partial 

 or complete) in hawks and eagles, as the genera Aquila (161) Archibu- 

 teo (160) and Buteo (159). AH our grouse, as distinguished from the 

 turkeys and partridges of the same order, have the tarsus more or less 

 feathered. The toes are feathered in few birds ; but we have fine examples 

 of this, in the snowy owl, and all the ptarmigan. Partial feathering of the 

 tai'sus is often continued further down to or on the toes hy sparse modi- 

 fied bristly feathers; this is well illustrated in the barn owl. When incom- 

 plete, the feathering is usually wanting heJdnd and below; being almost 

 invariably continuous above with the crural feathering. But, in tiiat spirit 

 of delight that birds show in jaroving every rule we make about them Ijy 

 furnishing exceptions to it, the tarsus is sometimes partly feathered without 

 connection with the general plumage above. A curious example is afforded 

 by the bank swallow, with its little tuft of feathers at the base of the hind 

 toe ; and some varieties of the barnyard fowl sprout monstrous leggings of 

 feathers from the side of the tarsus. 



§ 75. The Length of the Leg, compared with the size of the bird, is 

 extremely variable. A thrush or a sparrow probably represents about an 

 average in this respect. The shortest-legged known bird is probal)ly the 

 frigate, just mentioned ; a yard long, more or less, it has a tibia not half as 

 long as the skull, and a tarsus under an inch. The leg is very short in the 

 order Strisores, as among humming-birds, swifts, goatsuckers, kingfishers, 

 trogons, etc. ; while the swallows, of Oscines, are like swifts in this 

 respect. It is likewise pretty short among Scansores. The leg is also 

 "short" in all swimmers; the femur especially being very short, and the 

 tarsus likewise ; while the toes, bearing their broad webs, are longer. The 

 leg lengthens in lower Insessores, as most hawks, and especially among 

 some of the terrestrial pigeons. It is still longer among the walkers ; and 

 reaches its maximum among the waders, especially the larger kinds, as fla- 

 mingoes, cranes, storks and herons, among all of which it is accompanied 

 by corresponding increase in length of the neck. Probably the longest 

 legged of all birds for its size is the stilt (^Hhnantopiis, 197). It is seen 

 from the above, that, taking the tarsus alone, as an index of the whole com- 

 parative length of the leg, this is in the frigate liird under one thirty-sixth 

 of the total length ; a flamingo, four feet long, has a tarsus one foot ; a stilt, 

 fourteen inches long, a tarsus four inches ; so the maximum and minimum of 

 length of tarsus are represented by nearly thirty, and under three, per cent. 

 of the bird's whole length. 



