FOREST BIRDS, 359 



of the bird ; and one stroke of it taking effect on the 

 branches, which in the habitation of the parrots she 

 could not avoid, would fracture the wing, firm as it is, 

 or at all events throw her off her poise, and tumble 

 her to the earth, defeated, helpless, and fit only for 

 food to the snake or the vulture, if even they did 

 not scorn her as a meal. 



But the wings of the parrot are, from the looseness 

 of their articulation, proof against any such casualty ; 

 so that, though the bird move and flutter them ever 

 so much among the thick sprays, or have to use them 

 in the most awkward situations, in making way from 

 perch to perch, when the distance is too great for the 

 reach of the foot or the bill, they do not sustain the 

 slightest injury. From the flexibility of the wings of 

 these birds in the joints of their bones, the bones are 

 not only saved from danger of fracture to which more 

 firmly-jointed ones would be constantly exposed, but 

 the feathers are also less liable to be ruffled or injured 

 by striking against the twigs and branches than the 

 feathers of those stiff wings which are adapted for 

 more forward and rapid flight are by the contact of 

 the air, when they deliver their strokes from their 

 comparatively immoveable points of articulation on 

 the iSrmly-knit shoulders. 



All forest birds, which have to make their way 

 among twigs and leaves, and all birds generally which 

 are liable to come in contact with obstacles in the 

 stretching out or in the subsequent use of their wdngs, 

 have them more or less of this yielding structure, 

 according to the necessity which they have for it, so 

 that, whatever may be the difference of the place of 

 resort, or of the hazards to which any creature may 

 be exposed on account of these, the creature which is 

 native, or in its natural and accustomed element, in 



