﻿EXTERNAL ANATOMY. FEET. 



127 



these same laws can be also traced in the class of 

 quadrupeds. 



(115.) A Raptorial foot has some striking pecu- 

 liarities in the direction of the toes, which have been 

 passed over by all ornithological writers, who have 

 described their members as having the same toes in the 

 same positions as those of the perching order. On a 

 superficial examination they seem, indeed, to be so ; but 

 this is not strictly the fact. On examining the foot of 

 a hawk, or more particularly that of an owl, it will be 

 observed that the outer toe is placed more obliquely, 

 than directly in front, so that it admits of grasping 

 laterally, on the same principle, though much less de- 

 veloped, as we have already explained in the instance 

 of the cuckow. This inclination of the exterior fore toe 

 towards assuming a versatile structure, can only be 

 rightly seen in birds which are fresh ; for in dried spe- 

 cimens the three anterior toes appear all on the same 

 plane ; but even then the claw of this subversatile toe 

 is always more inclined inwards than those of the two 

 others ; a proof that they are not employed to grasp 

 the same side of the surface of an object. An examin- 

 ation of the American sparrow-hawk (Falco sparverius), 

 {fig. 66. a) a bird we have so often instanced, will show 

 this fact. But it is among the owls that this peculiarity 

 of structure is most apparent (b) : the three anterior toes 

 in this family are more equal in length than in any of the 

 Falconidce, or in the perchers ; so that the foot bears a 



jHjjf \c~§ on ty one > tnat m tne m iddie, 



is directed forwards ; the 

 other two being so inserted as to grasp in a lateral di- 



great resemblance to that of 

 the swifts ; both being Fis- 

 sirostral types. The foot of 

 the owls, nevertheless, differ 

 materially both from the 

 swifts and the falcons ; for it 

 maybe said that, of the three 

 toes opposite to the hallux, 



