. The bird book. Birds. 94 STRVCTU-RE AND COMPARISON. and that a web-footed bird seeks its living in water too deep for wading. When we compare all the different birds, we see that there are no great jiimi)s from one extreme to another, â from very- short legs to those ridiculously long, from tiny bills to those enormously long or thick or wide. Somewhere in nature we may expect to find a bird which just fills in the gap and makes a graded series. From the man-of-war bird with his abbreviated legs, for which, short as they are, he seems to have almost no use at all, to the stilt perched up on
. The bird book. Birds. 94 STRVCTU-RE AND COMPARISON. and that a web-footed bird seeks its living in water too deep for wading. When we compare all the different birds, we see that there are no great jiimi)s from one extreme to another, â from very- short legs to those ridiculously long, from tiny bills to those enormously long or thick or wide. Somewhere in nature we may expect to find a bird which just fills in the gap and makes a graded series. From the man-of-war bird with his abbreviated legs, for which, short as they are, he seems to have almost no use at all, to the stilt perched up on his absurd, artificial-looking shanks, extends all the long procession of birds â the terns and gulls and the whole race of sandpipers and others that take their food less and less by pursuing it on the wing, and more and more by running or wading after it. The changes, after all, are gradual. Watch the growth of the idea of a swim- ming foot and see how the need of more or less surface to oppose the water is met Fig. 20. Skmii-al- ^^ different ways. The first hint we get of MATE Foot of i p ^ ⢠⢠^i t- â >. 7 ^. j? Sandpiper (Life ^ web-foot IS m the slight semijKllmatton Ot Size). some of the sandpipers. We need not suppose necessarily that this is a sign that the sandpiper swims much, for we find semipalmation in some land-birds, even in the hen, and we know that this is to bear them up in walking over snow. Perhaps in the sandpipers the principal use of this slight webbing is to help them in walking over soft ^^' ° ^ ° Foot of Phala- mud. But soon it becomes evident that it ^^^^ (slightly aids in swimming, and the little phalaropes, reduced).. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Eckstorm, Fannie Hardy, 1865-1946. Boston, Heath
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1901
