EXTERNAL ANATOMY. BASOBIAL FEET. 153 
of description is desired, repeated personal examination 
is essentially necessary ; and this, under the above cir- 
cumstances, cannot he always attained. 
(132.) Feet of the rasorial type, as we have before 
observed, are remarkable for their size and strength: 
this holds good in nearly all the rasorial types among 
the perchers ; but their full development is only met with 
in the order Itamres itself. The habit of walking, even 
among the Innensores, is always indicated by a leg whose 
tarsus is much longer than the hind toe. This is, conse- 
quently, a universal character in the Rasorial order, to 
which is added a smallne.ss and elevation of this toe, not 
to be met with in the perching order. The lateral toes are 
always of equal length, and they are connected at their 
base to the middle one by a short web or membrane : now, 
was this membrane broader than it really is, it would 
obviously impede the free action of the joints of the toes ; 
but, by merely extending for a quarter of an inch or so, 
it gives strength and stability to the walk of the bird. 
The claws are altogether dilFerent from those of the 
perchers, because they perform different functions : they 
are very slightly bent, that they may not be injured in 
walking ; they are robust, because they are employed in 
scratching the ground, and they are greatly depressed, 
or rather horizontally flattened, that this function may 
be more effectually performed. The reader will find all 
these marks of discrimination in the claws of the par- 
b 8S a tridge (^p. 83. u) when compared with 
those of the blackbird. The smallness 
of the hind toe is not a peculiar char- 
acter of this order, but is common to the 
two others which form the abberrant 
circle of the class; namely, the Grallatores and the Nata- 
tores. But as this member is longer in the perching order, 
it is necessary that some of the rasorial birds should have 
it of an intermediate length, that the passage from one to 
the other should be easy, and preserve the universal law 
of progressive development. We accordingly find that 
in the family of the Cracidee, which connects the lnses~ 
