﻿EXTERNAL ANATOMY. SWIMMING FEET. l6l 



families, in being placed almost as forward as in the swifts. 

 We know too little of the manners of these birds in their 

 watery element, to conjecture the sort of influence this 

 structure would exercise during the act of swimming. It 

 seems, however, from the united testimony of voyagers, 

 that when upon land the penguin's attitude is perfectly 

 erect : indeed, it could not be otherwise, the legs being 

 placed so far back, and past the equilibrium of the body. 

 The same position is assumed by the cormorants when 

 watching for their prey ; and yet the form of the hind 

 toe in these two genera is so different, that this general 

 character in their habits will not explain 

 the reason of the variation. In the penguin 

 (fig. 88.) the tarsus is so short as almost 

 to be confounded with the sole of the 

 foot ; and it is probably rested upon the 

 ground for its whole length when the 

 bird walks, just as in the bear and other 

 plantigrade quadrupeds ; it is also re- 

 markably broad : the hind toe is placed in 

 front, and on the inner margin ; but it is 

 so unusually small, that, but for its short, 

 but well defined claw, it would not be 

 This claw is without any vestige of a web, 

 or of a lobe, and is quite disconnected with the others : 

 of the three anterior toes, the middle is the longest, 

 the outer rather less, and the inner by far the 

 shortest. The whole foot is remarkably flattened, being 

 near twice as broad as it is thick, as if to enable the 

 bird to cover a greater breadth of ground than ordinary. 

 The cormorant's foot agrees in having the hinder toe 

 brought forward ; but here its similarity to that of the 

 penguin ceases. The tarsus is somewhat longer, and 

 instead of being compressed in front, is compressed on 

 the sides ; the toes are long, and so arranged in their 

 relative lengths, that the outermost is the longest, and 

 the three others rapidly diminish in length ; all four 

 being connected to each other by a membrane which 

 reaches to the claws. From this it would appear that such 



perceived. 



