CHAPTER VII. 



FEET OF BIRDS AS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THEIR HABITS 

 AND HAUNTS, 



From the notice which has been taken of the 

 habits of the more remarkable birds in the • pre- 

 ceding observations on the structures and uses of 

 their bills, we shall be enabled to reduce this and 

 the following" branch of the subject to little more 

 than mere catalogues ; and all parts of the subject 

 would have the same brevity, if a system could be 

 formed as above suggested, free from all structural 

 details ; because then we would have nothing to con- 

 sider along with any organ but its own immediate 

 function. 



CLUTCHING FEET. 



The feet of birds are used in the air, on the earth, 

 on vegetable supports, and in the water. The only 

 feet which are, strictly speaking, used in the air, are 

 used in the capture of prey, or they are clutching feet, 

 the feet of all birds of prey, diurnal and nocturnal, 

 but the feet of no other birds. The most typical foot 

 of these is that of the jer falcon. 



The character of this foot is to have four toes, all 

 free to their bases, and three turned to the front and 

 one to the rear, in the general habit ; but those species 

 which fish have the exterior front toe reversible, so 

 that the toes act two against two, and thus lift the 



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