Feet and Legs 359 
through each toe is sufficient to clasp and unclasp a thou- 
sand times a day, and to hold and balance the bird on 
whatever bending twigs or wind-blown foliage it chances 
to alight. In this matter of perching the hind toe plays 
an important part, so much so that when the necessity 
for grasping ceases, this digit begins to wax flabby and 
weak and often becomes reduced in size. 
Sn > ee ee 
if 
ite 
arene 
Fig. 286.—Nuthatch on tree, Fig. 287.—Nuthatch clinging to a gloved 
clinging upside down. hand. (Bowdish, photographer. ) 
The creepers, Fig. 240, are passerine woodpeckers 
in habit and forever wind their spiral paths about the 
tree-trunks. But the nuthatch is the marvel of the 
whole Class of birds in this climbing ability. With no 
support whatever from the tail, and without special 
adaptation of toes, it defies all laws of gravitation and 
creeps up and down or around the vertical trunks, as if 
on a levei surface. Never a misstep, never a slip, but 
