Emu The pelvic limb muscles of emus contribute a similar proportion of the total body mass as do the flight muscles of flying birds. When walking, the emu takes strides of about , but at full gallop, a stride can be as long as . Its legs are devoid of feathers and underneath its feet are thick, cushioned pads. Like the cassowary, the emu has sharp claws on its toes which are its major defensive attribute, and are used in combat to inflict wounds on opponents by kicking. The toe and claw total in length. The bill is quite small, measuring
Bird feet and legs absent in diving birds. For example, in the long-tailed duck, the leg and wing bones are not pneumatic, in contrast with some of the other bones, while loonsand puffins have even more massive skeletons with no aired bones. The flightless ostrich and emu have pneumatic femurs, and so far this is the only known pneumatic bone in these birds except for the ostrich's cervical vertebrae. Fusions (leading to rigidity) and pneumatic bones (leading to reduced mass) are some of the many adaptations of birds for flight. Most birds, except loons and grebes, are digitigrade, not plantigrade. Also, chicks in the