scutellation

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun An arrangement or a covering of scales, as that on a bird's leg or a lizard's body.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun 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.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

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

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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