Talon

“ Cross.—Place the hand, pointing upward before the face, palm to it; bend the fingers toward face like the talons of an eagle, repeating motion several times, and add meaning by expression of the face. IV, 57.
Angry.—With the fingers bent, talon-like, throw hand against the waist, partly at one side; give a tearing, upward motion against the body. Sometimes both hands are used. ”

“ Make an ogee or talon with its fillets reversed. (fig. 8.) The profile of the talon is formed by two arcs of a circle united at their end, and "whose centres are on different sides of a right line, which joins their extremi- ties. This line, which is dotted in the figure, is cut in the middle by the arcs, and each half being taken for the base of an equilateral triangle, the summit or apex of the triangle is the centre of the arc. The right line which joins these two summits or centres of the arcs, passes through the point where the two arcs touch at the middle of the first right line. ”

“ Compare (and of course with the pencil) the beaks of birds: the beak of the seagull with that of the swallow, or with that of the parrot. In the last-mentioned bird the beak seems to predominate and form the greater part of the skull. Sketch the curious square shape of the parrot's upper and lower beak, together with the wrinkled skin, and the sharp cunning little eye.
Birds' feet and legs exhibit astonishing variations of form. What, for instance, could be more dissimilar than a stork's leg and an owl's, the duck's web and the swallow's claw, the eagle's talon and the sparrows? ”

“ The birds which have hooked talons are never gregarious; each one seeks its prey by itself. They nearly all of them soar to a great height, with the exception of the birds of the night, and more especially those of larger size. They all have large wings, and a small body; they walk with difficulty, and rarely settle upon stones, being prevented from doing so by the curved shape of their talons. ”

“ For a moment man and monster stood poised, almost en tableau, then they crashed to the floor together—talons and fingers clawing, gouging at eyes; wings, feet, hard-gnarled hands, scimitared tail, balled fist, boots and teeth wreaking every ultimate possibility of damage. ”

“ All the digits have nearly the same thickness. The soles of the feet are full and rounded, soft and unbailed. The talons are sufficiently large, strong and acute; the inner and hind being equal; the central as long almost but feebler ; and the outer fore, much the smallest. All the talons are rounded below, but none of them are compressed.
The ear, as well as the eye, is very noticeably large; and the gape reaches to the centre of the eye or more. ”

“ The feet are eminently formed for striking and trussing, and the beak for dissecting their prey, which, with scarcely an exception, consists of living animals; and for the pursuit and conquest of, these, the birds before us are endowed with vigorous limbs; the wings being for the most part long, dense, and capable of powerful flight, and the feet strong and muscular, and armed with formidable talons. ”

“ Orange-tinted nails and fingertips, visible occasionally when the loose fold of a robe was snatched from the contamination of touching him, suggested the talons of a bird of prey rather than the slender well-shaped hand for which the Arab woman is noteworthy. Every man, almost without exception, scowled at him. ”

“ There were three who were alive, and their appearance was not prepossessing, for their faces had a dead, white look, and their eyes seemed to be blind in the daylight, while their hair and beards were long and matted, and the hair falling over their faces gave them a wild, animal look, which their finger-nails increased, for they were long and more like talons. ”

“ The reason for employing so remarkable a mode of attack is to be found in the structure of the feet, which, although belonging to so large and powerful a bird, are comparatively feeble, and are unable, like those of the eagle, to grasp the living animal in a deadly hold, and to drive the sharp talons into its vitals. They are not well adapted for holding prey, the talons not possessing the hook-like form or the sharp points which characterise those of the eagle. The feet, by the way, are feathered down to the toes. ”

“ Where claws or talons are needed in the business of fighting or tearing food in bits or digging holes in the ground or elsewhere, the scarf skin changes itself at the extremities of paws and feet and produces nails, talons, and claws, whose powers are both marvelous and varied. ”

“ The length of his legs not only enables him to pursue these creatures over the sandy deserts which he inhabits with a speed proportioned to their own, but also places his more vulnerable parts in some measure above the risk of their venomous bite; and the imperfect character of his talons, when compared with those of other rapacious birds, is in complete accordance with the fact that his feet are destined rather to inflict powerful blows, than to seize and carry off his prey. ”

“ The two feet with their talons, which correspond to the hind feet in quadrupeds, are the graspers with birds of prey, working instruments with domestic fowl, and weapons with some other birds, as, for instance, the ostrich. ”

“ The feet are enormously large; the breadth of the fore foot exceeding nine inches, and the length of the hind foot exclusive of the talons, being eleven inches and three quarters, and its breadth seven inches. The talons sometimes measure more than six inches. He is, accordingly, admirably adapted for digging up the ground, but is unable to climb trees, in which latter respect he differs wholly from every other species. The color of his hair varies to almost an indefinite extent, between all the intermediate shades of a light gray and a black brown ”

“ A tree is the usual spot selected for this purpose, and the Leopard, after climbing the trunk by means of its curved talons, settles itself in the fork of the branches, so that its body is hidden by the boughs, and only its head is shown between them. ”

“ The middle toe is greatly elongated, and the hinder one but slightly developed, while the talons of all the toes are comparatively straight and blunt, and are thus of little use as organs of prehension. ”

“ Some species of birds are furnished additionally with spurs, but no bird with crooked talons is found so provided. The birds with talons are among those that fly well, but those that have spurs are among the heavy-bodied. ”

“ You feel transported into some unheard-of, impossible, but still real world. The trunks of the trees look like phantoms, the men resemble hyenas, owls, cats, asses, or hippopotamuses; their nails may be talons, their shoes covered with bows may conceal cloven feet; that young cavalier may be some old corpse, and his trunk hose, ornamented with ribbons, envelop perhaps a fleshless thigh-bone and two shrunk legs ”

“ Nature has given this instinct to timid animals, but fortunately denied it to the bold tribes; they go singly, and depend upon their courage and strength for their safety and support. Aristotle observed, and justly remarked, that of all animals furnished with talons not any of them are sociable, or go together in troops. ”

“ The sandal worn by the Romans, with its half-covering of the toes, and its straps and ribbons across the instep, and its thick sole—and one can roughly contrive a sandal with Fig. 20. Margery's Foot cardboard and ribbons at home—makes a most interesting subject to draw. Sandals, by the interweaving of their straps, draw our attention to the variety of shapes of the toes, which we too often overlook. The big toe is an important member of the foot; indeed, of the whole body. When the foot is raised it is the big toe that spreads and separates from the other toes, and helps to balance the foot. ”

“ And seeing, as we have said, that the foot (the myths almost always speak of one foot alone; even the devil is lame, or has only one foot) and the tail of an animal are often substituted for each other in mythology, we can understand how, in a Russian story, [471] the hero who has fallen into a marsh was able to deliver himself by clutching hold of the tail of a duck. This duck being the aurora, and having a wide spreading tail as well as a large foot, the solar hero, or the sun, can easily, by holding on to her, raise himself out of the swamp of night. ”

“ All the comings and goings took place in silence, over the top of the tree, and I have watched the nest an hour at a time without being able to see a sign of its occupancy, except the one thing a sitting bird cannot hide, the tail. And, by the way, how providential—from the bird student's point of view—that birds have tails! They can, it is true, be narrowed to the width of one feather and laid against a convenient twig, but they cannot be wholly suppressed, nor drawn down out of sight into the nest with the rest of the body. ”

“ Oh, that tail—that awful, writhing, lashing tail! I can stand Indians, bears, wolves, anything but that tail, and a rattler is all tail, except its head. If that tail touches me I shall let go. It did touch me, I did not let go. Pride held me there, for I heard the sound of galloping hoofs. Whiskers' empty saddle had alarmed the rest of the party. ”

“ Whether going up or down, he carries his tail extended at full length in line with his body, unless it be required for gestures. But while running along horizontal limbs or fallen trunks, it is frequently folded forward over the back, with the airy tip daintily upcurled. In cool weather it keeps him warm. Then, after he has finished his meal, you may see him crouched close on some level limb with his tail-robe neatly spread and reaching forward to his ears, the electric, outstanding hairs quivering in the breeze like pine-needles. ”

“ Some animals have horns, others have none; most of those with horns have also cloven feet, as the ox, the stag, and the goat. We have never seen an animal with a solid hoof with two horns, and there are only a few that have a solid hoof and one horn, as the Indian ass, and the oryx. [34] [Pg 28] Of all animals with a solid hoof, the Indian ass alone has a talus. Swine, as I said before, belong to both classes, so that they have not a well-formed astragulus.
9. Many animals with cloven hoofs have a talus; no animals with their feet in many divisions have a talus, nor has man. ”

“ The bones which form the base of the tail are large, and bend downward in a peculiar manner, so that the tail feathers do not, as in other birds, follow the line of the body, but are thrown in beneath it, their points pressing against the surface on which the feet are resting: and as the shafts of the tail-feathers are remarkably stout, rigid, and elastic, and are produced into stiff points, the barbs also being stiff and convex beneath, a powerful support is gained in the rapid perpendicular ascent of the bird up the trunks of trees, by the pressure of this powerful organ against the bark. ”

“ For how pretty it looked, though dead, lying on its back, the little black legs stuck stiffly up, the long wings pressed against the sides, their black tips touching together like the clasped hands of a corpse; and the fan-like black and white tail, half open as in life, moved perpetually up and down by the wind, as if that tail-flirting action of the bird had continued after death. ”

“ One fine summer's afternoon, the Lion went trotting home in high good humour. As he went along, he kept muttering and grinning to himself, as if mightily pleased. When he got home, he banged at the door of his den with his tail. A Lion's tail is very strong and hard, you know, stronger and harder than any bell rope. ”

“ As he sings, his tail droops, but when he is bustling about on every-day business he is given to changing his attitude with the passing instants—now he is fluffy, now sleek; up goes his tail; he jumps; he flashes his wings, droops them and spreads his tail. ”

“ See them lashing their tails, bristling their manes, ploughing the air and tossing high above their incensed horns, that distracted gory biped, whose every individual hair is made to stand on end with horror, and his coat-tail astonishingly to perpendicularize. ”

“ The tail is not so long as the body. In outward appearance it closely resembles the leopard, especially in its arborial habits, as by means of its powerful claws it can with ease spring up the trunk of a tree, and make its way along the branches, ready to pounce down upon a foe. Nearly every creature of the forests and arid plains over which it roams, and many which frequent the margins of the rivers and lakes, have to dread its voracious jaws. ”

“ The anatomy of the foot is fairly well shown in the track—the insignificant thumb and the tubercles on the soles. The placing of the fore feet, one behind the other, indicates that the creature cannot climb a tree. The tail seldom or never shows. ”

“ If you will lift yourself upon your toes, holding your heels in the air, you will be able to form a correct idea of what the bird is doing whenever it stands or walks or perches.
The toes are fastened by means of well adapted joints to the lower end of the tarsus, and form what is popularly regarded as the bird's foot. When spoken of separately, these toes are called digits, and when spoken of collectively, they are called the podium. They are composed of small bones called phalanges or internodes, which are jointed upon one another like the several parts of the human fingers. ”

“ They have beards, however, just above the knee; no toe-nails, and but one toe on each foot. They are all tailed, the tail being a large cabbage of an evergreen kind, which does not break if they fall upon it. ”

“ This tail was long and formed of extended vertebræ like the tail of a lizard, and from every joint grew a pair of large quill feathers.
Such a tail must have greatly hindered the creature’s flight, and in fact in the many years that passed before the existence of the next birds of which fossil forms remain, a new fashion of tails had come in; the huge court-train had vanished, and birds appeared with the closely crowded vertebræ of the tail, only sufficient to support the tail feathers. ”

“ When fully grown, from tip of mouth to tip of tail, they are about eight feet long. Their great plumed wings and tails and their heads so feline in form and appearance suggest the idea of composite creatures, partaking of the characteristics of both bird and animal, and when in flight they present an imposing but most uncanny appearance. ”