At 05:50 PM 3/20/2005 +1100, you wrote:
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Ah yes Tony but the feet of owls are VERY
different to the feet of nightjars (the frogmouth of course being of the
latter group and not at all close to an owl). So a
Boobook perching on the
wires of a Hills hoist is unremarkable but a Frogmouth is quite another
story.
Owls have strong zygodactyl (two toes forward
& two toes backward) feet used for catching prey and nightjars don't.
The feet of any ORDER of birds are generally quite different to the feet
of any other ORDER of birds but this is especially so comparing owls'
feet to the feet of nightjars. As in number, direction, location of
attachment and form of toes, presence or absence of full or partial
webbing and which toes it includes. This point is one of the many, sadly
lost on the many people that like to think of Families as the major
subdivisions of birds.
Philip
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