Title: Animal locomotion, or Walking, swimming, and flying, with a dissertation on aëronautics
Identifier: animallocomotio00pett (find matches)
Year: 1874 (1870s)
Authors: Pettigrew, James Bell, 1834-1908
Subjects: Animal locomotion; Aeronautics
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton & company
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
PKOGKESSION ON THE LAND. 47 of movement for which this celebrated bird is famous. Tlie limb of the ostrich, with its large bones placed very obliquely to form a system of powerful levers, is the very embodiment of speed. The foot is quite worthy of the limb,' it being in
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 24.—Skeleton of the Ostrich. Show« the T>o\verM legs, small feet, and rudimentary wings of the bird ; the obliquity at which the bones of the legs and wings are placed, and the comparatively small angles which any two bones make at thdr ))oint of junction, a Angle made by femur with ilium. b Angle made by tibia and fibula with femur.- c Angle made by tarso- metatarsal bone with tibia and fibula d Angle made by bones of foot with tarso-metatarsal bone, r Bones of wing inclined to each other at nearly right angles. Compare with fig. 4, p. 21, fig. 2(5, p. 55, and fig. 27, p 59.—Adapted from Dallas. some respects the most admirable structure of its kind in existence. The foot of the ostrich differs considerably from that of all other birds, those of its own family excepted. Thus the under portion of tlie foot is flat, and specially adapted for acting on plane surfaces, particularly solids.^ The 1 Feet designed for swimming, grasping trees, or securing prey, do not operate to adv^antage on a flat surface. The awkward w^addle of the swan, parrot, and eagle when on the ground affords illnstratioias.

Note About Images