W. Middles*r Co. Mass. 
Jun* 25 - 30 , 1889 . 
Ashby -§n June Sothi as we v/ere drivinfi through a -heavy 
piece of timber, mainly spruce and v/hite pine, our attention v/as 
attracted by a conmiotion among the small biro.s in the trees near 
the road. Upon taking a few steps into the wooes v/e were start- 
led by a succession o ' loud cries which 6 - ooi^d *^what resembled ihe 
laughing call of the -^li cker , but v/ere louder and hoarser. The.se 
cries v/ere familiar to us both, and, after a moireno, we recalled 
their author,^^^ Sharp Shinned Hav/k. Shortly afterv/ard v/e tliought 
•'e caugh'c sight of the bird flying through the trees, but were not 
certain of this. 
Note on the Foot of Accipiter fuscus. — On the plantar surfaces 
of each foot of the Sharp-shinned Hawk two papillae may be noticed, 
which differ from the others, more properly described as pads, in their 
greater length and more symmetrical form. These pads are placed at 
the second phalangeal joint of the third toe, and at the third phalangeal 
joint of the fourth toe, that is, at the bases of the penultimate phalanges 
of the third and fourth toes. These papillae are shown to be modified 
pads, the same as those at the other two joints, by the less developed 
papillae of Circus, Asiur, and others. This transition can readily be 
traced in the sketches of the feet given in the, systematic works on Hawks, 
though the special prominence of the papillae in the Sharp-shinned Hawk 
does not seem to be particularly noted. On removing the skin, however, 
a marked difference at once comes in view. While all the pads are nearly 
obliterated, the papillae still remain as solid cones of connective tissue (.?), 
having much the same shape and sizes as the entire papillae. These cones 
or cores are internally connected with the superficial fascia of the toes and 
seem to straddle the, flexor tendons running below. 
On noting the structural difference, the cause or function of these 
papillae at once becomes a point of interest. Why have these two pads 
been modified into long papillae (.12 inch in a dried specimen), and provi- 
ded with a solid core.^ Now the foot of Accipiter is so constructed that 
the first toe opposes the second toe, and their claws move in nearly par- 
allel arcs. This is not the case with the third and fourth toes, which are 
longer and not opposable to one another. Thus the claws can be op- 
posed to nothing except the middle portions of the toes to which they 
belong. But when the claw is thus flexed a small space well adapted for 
grasping twigs and feathers is formed by the papillae, the penultimate 
phalanx and the claw, the point projecting beyond resembling the feet of 
certain Crustacea and lice. Hence the function of the papillae would 
seem to be to aid the third and fourth claws in grasping small objects, and 
it is an interesting point to notice that the foot of Accipiter fuscus is 
thus drawn in North American Birds, by Baird, Brewer and Ridgway. 
How far the same considerations hold in other species I cannot say, but 
as mentioned above, allied forms seem to possess the character to a less 
r, April, 1882 , p, IXIs'l ^'1 • 
degree. ^ J. Amory Jeffries, Boston, Mass. 
BaU. jSf.0.0. 
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