Like all other animals they all have two eyes,
and these are devoid of lashes. The heavy-bodied (or gallinaceous)
birds close the eye by means of the lower lid, and all birds blink
by means of a skin extending over the eye from the inner corner; the
owl and its congeners also close the eye by means of the upper lid.
The same phenomenon is observable in the animals that are protected by
horny scutes, as in the lizard and its congeners; for they all without
exception close the eye with the lower lid, but they do not blink like
birds. Further, birds have neither scutes nor hair, but feathers;
and the feathers are invariably furnished with quills. They have no
tail, but a rump with tail-feathers, short in such as are
long-legged and web-footed, large in others. These latter kinds of
birds fly with their feet tucked up close to the belly; but the
small rumped or short-tailed birds fly with their legs stretched out
at full length. All are furnished with a tongue, but the organ is
variable, being long in some birds and broad in others. Certain
species of birds above all other animals, and next after man,
possess the faculty of uttering articulate sounds; and this faculty is
chiefly developed in broad-tongued birds.
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