scutellation

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An arrangement or a covering of scales, as that on a bird's leg.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In ornithology, the condition of the foot when the horny covering is fashioned into scutella; the state of being scutellate, or provided with scutella; the arrangement of the scutella: opposed to reticulation.

Wiktionary

1. n. zoology The entire covering or arrangement of scales, as on the legs and feet of a bird.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) The entire covering, or mode of arrangement, of scales, as on the legs and feet of a bird.