Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/203

190 feet are short and broad, and covered with numerous small rounded scales.

The power of moving the upper mandible, which is wanting to the Mammalia, is common, and almost universal, among Birds. In the present Family, however, it is much more highly developed than in other birds; the mandible not being



connected into one piece with the skull, by elastic and yielding bony plates, as is the case with birds in general, but constituting a particular bone, distinct from the rest of the skull, and jointed to it. This mobility is rendered more conspicuous by the circumstance of their vigorous jaws being set in motion by a greater number of muscles than are found in other birds. The advantages of this peculiarity of structure are obvious, when we remember the use which a Parrot makes of this organ, as a third hand, to assist it in climbing from bough to bough, or about the bars of its cage when in confinement.