48 
THE BONES. 
with B in fig. 2, of the leg being partly hid in the 
feathers, and the bend of the leg beneath the tail 
corresponding with c, the remaining part from that 
point to the claws answering to our foot and toes. 
STILTED FLOVER*. 
There are some other beautiful contrivances in 
the limbs of birds which deserve attention. Look 
at a bird fast asleep with its head under its wing, 
resting usually on one leg, and that again resting 
upon a perch not thicker than one’s finger. How 
apparently difficult and uneasy is such a position ; 
and yet it is all made easy and safe to the bird, by 
an admirable piece of internal mechanism, which 
may be briefly thus explained. Connected with 
the thigh-bones and leg, a set of muscles run down 
to the very extremity of the toes, so contrived and 
* Charadrius himantopus. 
