﻿EXTERNAL ANATOMY. FEET OP BUPHAGA. 14 5 



do this, as in the case of all other scansorial birds ; so 

 that they must either be used to cling to the backs 

 of sheep and wool-bearing animals, or round slender 

 branches. All the accounts we have confirm the former 

 supposition, while the whole structure of the foot shows 

 that this bird never walks habitually upon the ground. 

 We have merely glanced at these facts, which shows 

 the station held by Buphaga in the circle of the scan- 

 sorial creepers, for the purpose of lessening the surprise 

 which will be excited among ornithologists by this new 

 view of its affinities ; and we shall now describe its foot. 

 Although the tarsus is very short, the toes are equally 

 so, yet the nails are disproportionably large ; the lateral 

 anterior toes and the hallux (when measured with their 

 claws) are equal, but are shorter than the tarsus, whik 

 the claw of the hallux is as long as the toe itself. It 

 might be imagined that if this bird really fed, habit- 

 ually, upon the backs of cattle, the very acuteness of its 

 claws would inflict more pain upon the animal than 

 was felt from the insects which it came to devour. 

 Nay, further, that the bird could not retain its hold 

 upon the ox's hide without its talons penetrating the 

 skin. No theory can be more plausible than this, and yet 

 it is denied by the following experiments. Let any 

 one take a dried specimen of the Buphaga that has its 

 toes extended in a natural position, and apply the foot 

 to the fingers of one hand, while he pulls the specimen 

 with the other, exerting the same force, or even greater, 

 as he might suppose the bird to do were it alive and 

 clinging to his naked hand. This done, he will be 

 altogether surprised at finding that the claws, so far 

 from penetrating the skin, do not create the least 

 degree of pain. Let him then make the same experi- 

 ment with the foot of a sparrow-hawk, and if only one 

 quarter of the same force is used, the talons occasion 

 instant pain, and their points enter the skin ; if the 

 force exercised was the same, they would immediately 

 be buried in the flesh. Two such opposite effects pro- 



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