LESSER YELLOWLEGS
First, a foot that can be used like a hand to clasp a perch, a "perching foot."
Second, one that is good to use as a foot, but not at all like a hand, called a "scratching foot."
Third, one that is like neither hand nor foot, but a paddle, called a "swimming foot."
The birds who have the first kind, the "perching foot," have usually three toes turned forward and one turned back. They can grasp a branch or a twig as tightly as if with a hand, as all our common little birds do. And the large birds of prey, such as hawks and owls ([Fig 9]), hold in them live mice and squirrels and the other little animals they eat.
Some birds with perching feet have the toes placed another way. Woodpeckers have two turned forward and two turned back, so that they can hold better to a tree trunk ([Fig 10]).
