CHAPTER IV. 



SKELETON OF BIRDS. 



As it is not the province of natural history, espe- 

 cially of that popular form of it to which this work is 

 restricted, to enter into the details of anatomy, any 

 farther than is necessary to obtain a general notion of 

 the way in which the motions of animals are per- 

 formed, the present section will be very short. We 

 have already alluded to some of those peculiarities 

 in the bones of birds, which enable them to perform 

 their chief aerial motions ; and our main object in 

 again reverting to this part of the subject is to place 

 before the reader a sketch of the bones of what may 

 be considered as the model or utmost perfection of a 

 bird, before proceeding to point out how the classifica- 

 tion of birds is founded upon one or more of their 

 three grand actions, as these are dependent upon, or 

 arise out of their varied organisations. 



The sketch represents the bones of the Jer- Falcon 

 {Falco Icelandicus ; Hierofalco, of Cuvier), which is 

 the boldest, the most perfectly winged, and, in pro- 

 portion to its weight, the strongest both for action and 

 endurance of all the feathered tribes. Dwelling in 

 the wilds of nature, subjected to violent winds, to 

 heavy snows, and to long-continued rains, and com- 

 pelled often to endure long periods of abstinence in 

 those parts of the world where there is not a tree, 

 and hardly even a bush, for the shelter of a bird, and 



