EXTERNAL ANATOMY. SYNOACTYLE FEET. 149 
die term Syndactyle. The habits of these two groups, 
so far as concerns the use of their feet, are nearly the 
same, for in neither are these members ever employed 
but to rent the body. The kingfisher watches patiently 
from a fixed station, — generally a naked twig, over- 
hanging the water, — for such fish as come within its 
reach, and then, after a time, flies to another station ; 
where it alights, it remains. The feet {fig. 80. a), from 
not being used for walking or standing, are consequently 
very small, and the toes imperfectly developed ; there 
are three in front, and one behind, but two of the 
former might be almost reck- 
oned as only one, since they 
are united together even to the 
commencement of their respec- 
tive claws ; the inner toe is not 
half the length of the others, 
and seems ruilimentary : it has 
a claw, and is rather more de- 
tached at its tip than the other 
two: in some, as in the three 
toed kingfishers, this inner toe 
disappears. The hinder toe (b) 
is very short, and scarcely longer than the inner one ; 
the scales of the whole foot are so thin and transparent, 
that they can scarcely be seen in the small species by the 
naked eye. Those who have seen much of the true king- 
fishers, so scarce in England, but so common in tropical 
America, know that diey never perch upon any other 
than small or slender branches ; and this we might infer 
from the shape of tlte foot. The two outer anterior 
toes are very long, so that they would completely clasp 
two thirds of the circumference of a small branch, the 
other third being embraced by the hinder toe: this 
fact is further confirmed by the unusual flatness of the 
soles of all, and by the acuteness of the claws (c), which, 
from being but slightly curved, would not, upon a 
small branch, come into contact with the wood . t e 
