380 The Bird 
ing the body down with one foot, proceeds to swallow it. 
In case a snake proves unusually hard to manage on 
the ground the dauntless bird watches his opportunity, 
seizes his adversary close to the head, and, flying aloft 
to a considerable height, lets it drop on the hard ground, 
which is usually sufficient to prepare it for the final 
ceremony of swallowing.” 
Fic. 298.—Feet of Ruffed Grouse, showing snowshoes of horn. 
Quail, grouse, pheasants, turkeys, and all the fowl- 
like birds are scratchers, according to the old classification, 
and they well deserve the name; for scratching first with 
one foot and then the other among the leaves and soft 
dirt for insects is a very pronounced habit of them all. 
The arrangement of toes is the same as in the perching 
birds, but the claws are very different. These birds are 
