1 62 ELEMENTS OF OENITHOLOGT. 



by small feathers for its whole length, aa in the Barn Owl, some 

 Eagles, and the Grromse, or it may be only partly feathered* 

 The toes ar^ normally feathered also in some Owls and in the 

 Ptarmigan. 



Abnormcdly, feathers grow on the feet which resemble the 

 long feathers of the wing. Such feathers may be found on the 

 feet of Trumpeter Pigeons and Bantam Powls, and structures 

 of this kind are called " boots." These extra feathers are 

 attached to the outer side of the foot, just as the primaries of 

 the wing are to the outer side of the pinion. These foot^ 

 feathers have been known to exceed the wing-feathers in length, 

 which they resemble not only in size but in structure. 



The sMn of the hare portion of the limh is almost always horny, 

 but may be somewhat leathery, as, e. g., in the Duck and most 

 aquatic birds. The epidermal covering is more or less divided 

 into scale-like segments. If these are very small they are said 

 to be reticulate ; if they form largish quadrate segments the 

 part so invested is scutellate ; but the tarsus may be invested by 

 a continuous horny plate in front — or along what is called the 

 acrotarsium — when it is said to be booted or greaved. When 

 the reticulations are in the form of little prominences which 

 roughen the legs, such a covering is granular ; and if a scutel- 

 late part is so formed as to make the leg rough, it is called 

 scarious. Its prominences may be so sharp as to be termed 

 serrations. The wrinkled surface of the web of palmated feet 

 is spoken of as cancellated. 



Different naked parts of the limb may be difEerently invested. 



The whole naked epidermal investment is named the j)odo- 

 theca. If this is divided into many subdivisions, it is said to be 

 sehizothecal. The lateral and the hinder surface of the tarsus, or 

 thsplanta, may be invested with scales or scutellate — a condition 

 termed seutelliplantar — or it may be covered with reticulations. 

 But each lateral surface may be clothed with only one continu- 

 ous plate, which meets its fellow at the middle of the back of 

 the tarsus, the junction of the two forming a prominent ridge ; 

 such a condition is denominated laminiplantar, and the co- 

 existence of this condition with a continuous horny plate in 

 front of the tarsus forms a podotheca, the very opposite to that 

 termed " schizothecal." By contrast, therefore, it is distin- 

 guished as holothecal — a " holofchecal podotheca." A tarsus may, 

 however, be laminiplantar and yet scutellate in front, or it may 

 be scutellate in front and reticulate laterally and behind, or it 



