via 
PREFACE. 
Shafts. 
fliai'p claws. Vultures excepted. Thofe of all land-birds that 
rooft on trees have alfo hooked claws, to enable them to perch in 
fafety while afleep. 
The Gallinaceous tribe have broad concave claws for fcrap- 
ing up the ground. 
Grebes have flat nails like the human. 
Among water-fowl only the Skua, Br. Zool. II. No. 243. and 
the Black toed Gull, Br. Zool. II. No. 244. have ftrong hook- 
ed or aquiline claws. All land-birds perch on trees, except the 
Struthious and fome of the Gallinaceous tribe. Parrots 
climb 3 Woodpeckers creep up the bodies and boughs of trees ] 
Swallows cling. 
All water-fowl reft on the ground, except certain Herons, 
and one fpecies of Ibis, the Spoonbill, one or two fpecies of 
Ducks, and of Corvorants. 
FEATHERS. 
Feathers are defigned for two ufes, as coverings from the in- 
clemency of the weather, and inftruments of motion through the 
air. They are placed in fuch a manner as to fall over one an- 
other, tegulatm , fo as to permit the wet to run off, and to ex- 
clude the cold ■, and thofe on the body are placed in a quincun- 
cial form, moft apparent in the thick-fkinned water-fowl, par- 
ticularly in the Divers. 
The parts of a feather are, the Shafts, corneous, ftrong, 
light, rounded, and hollow at the lower part ; at the upper, 
convex above, concave beneath, and chiefly compofed of a 
pith. 
On 
