The Feet of Birds

Teacher’s Story

BVIOUSLY, the hen is a digger of the soil; her claws are long, strong and slightly hooked, and her feet and legs are covered with horny scales as a protection from injury when used in scratching the hard earth, in order to lay bare the seeds and insects hiding there. The hen is a very good runner indeed. She lifts her wings a little to help, much as an athletic runner uses his arms, and so can cover ground with amazing rapidity, her strong toes giving her a firm foothold. The track she makes is very characteristic; it consists of three toe-marks projecting forward and one backward. A bird’s toes are numbered thus:

A duck has the same number of toes as the hen, but there is a membrane, called the web, which joins the second, third and fourth toes, making a fan-shaped foot; the first or the hind toe has a little web of its own. A webbed foot is first of all a paddle for propelling its owner through the water; it is also a very useful foot on the shores of ponds and streams, since its breadth and flatness prevent it from sinking into the soft mud.

The duck’s legs are shorter than those of the hen and are placed farther back and wider apart. The reason for this is, they are essentially swimming organs and are not fitted for scratching nor for running. They are placed at the sides of the bird’s body so that they may act as paddles, and are farther back so that they may act like the wheel of a propeller in pushing the bird along. We often laugh at a duck on land, since its short legs are so far apart and so far back that its walk is necessarily an awkward waddle; but we must always remember that the duck is naturally a water bird, and on the water its movements are graceful. Think once, how a hen would appear if she attempted to swim! The duck’s body is so illy balanced on its short legs that it cannot run rapidly; and if chased even a short distance, will fall dead from the effort, as many a country child has discovered to his sorrow when he tried to drive the ducks home from the creek or pond to coop. The long, hind claw of the hen enables her to clasp a roost firmly during the night; a duck’s foot could not do this and the duck sleeps squatting on the ground. However, the Muscovy ducks, which are not good swimmers, have been known to perch.