. Bird-life : a guide to the study of our common birds . is bird have well-developed clawson the thumb and first finger, and long before they canfly they use them as aids in clambering about the bushes,very much as we may imagine the Arehaeopteryx the adult these claws are wanting. Some eminently aquatic birds, as Grebes and Pen-guins, when on land, may use their wings as fore legs inscrambling awkwardly along ; while some flightless birds,for example, the Ostrich, spread their wings when run-ning. But let us consider the wing in its true office, that ofan organ of flight, showing its r
. Bird-life : a guide to the study of our common birds . is bird have well-developed clawson the thumb and first finger, and long before they canfly they use them as aids in clambering about the bushes,very much as we may imagine the Arehaeopteryx the adult these claws are wanting. Some eminently aquatic birds, as Grebes and Pen-guins, when on land, may use their wings as fore legs inscrambling awkwardly along ; while some flightless birds,for example, the Ostrich, spread their wings when run-ning. But let us consider the wing in its true office, that ofan organ of flight, showing its range of variation, and finally its degradation intoa flightless organ. Amongflying birds the spreadwines measure in extentfrom about three inches inthe smallest Hummingbirdto twelve or fourteen feetin the Wandering Albatross. The relation betweenshape of wing and style of flight is so close that if youshow an ornithologist a birds wing he can generallytell you the character of its owners flight. The ex-tremes are shown by the short-winged ground birds,. Fig. 5.—Short, rounded wins and largefoot of Little Black Rail, a terres-trial bird. (Vs natural Bize.)
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirdsun, bookyear1901
