228 
BIRD-LIFE. 
capable of embracing a greater or less field at will. Its 
weapons are murderous indeed: attached to very strong 
egs are long powerful toes, terminating with large curved 
nails; the centre toe is longer than the others, and all 
are rough on the under surface, especially on the large 
wart-like protuberances answering to the ball of our foot; 
the nails are convex above and grooved beneath. This 
terrible hand is irresistibly contracted by means of 
mighty muscles, which, however, only reach the toes in 
the form of sinews, the tremendous nails inflicting 
fearful triangular wounds of the most deadly character. 
The beak is weaker than the claws, but is quite as well 
adapted to tear as they are to hold fast or to strangle. 
The horny upper mandible terminates in a hook similar 
to the nails of the feet, and is furnished with a sharp- 
edged tooth, answering to the canine tooth in carnivorous 
mammals; the lower mandible is sharp at the end and 
at both edges. A predatory creature thus armed must 
perforce be king of the air. Nothing escapes its far- 
seeing eye, its patience and activity, or can ever release 
itself from the terrible talons when once within their 
grasp. This bird may be well compared to a feathered 
arrow traversing the air with the rapidity of thought, 
a living and winged instrument of death! 
The structure and general equipment of the Owls, 
those nocturnal robbers, are essentially different from 
those of the above, and render them able to glide unseen 
and unheard on their prey. They are robbers in the lower, 
where the Falcon is so in the higher, sense of the word. 
The last pursues its calling in a gentlemanly manner, 
while the first is an underhand assassin. The build 
of the body differs greatly in its principal component 
parts from that of the Falcons. The carcass is rounder, 
