THE MUSCLES OF THE LOWER EXTREMITY. 197 



the anterior margin of the adductor magnus by a firm 

 but delicate fascia. 



108. The adductor magnus is in reality a longer 

 and narrower muscle than the preceding, and is com- 

 posed of finer and somewhat more compact muscular 

 fasciculae. It also arises from the line constituting the 

 lower boundary of the ischiatic fossa for the obturator 

 externus muscle, on the outer lateral aspect of the pelvis. 

 Its extent of origin on this line commences where the ad- 

 ductor longus terminates posteriorly, and occupies rather 

 more than seven millimetres of it in the posterior direction, 

 to a point where the semitendinosus terminates anteriorly. 



From this origin its fibres pass directly down to the 

 superior curve of the internal femoral condyle, where 

 they are inserted. The internal head of the gastro- 

 cnemius is largely attached to this muscle just above 

 its insertion ; its anterior margin is also attached by 

 fascia, as alluded to above, to the adductor longus. 

 In fact both of these adductors lie practically in the 

 same plane, and act as one muscle. We observe also 

 that they develop but very little tendon, either at 

 their origins or their insertions. 



Owen found the adductor magnus in the Apteryx to 

 be " a broad and flat muscle, which has an extensive 

 origin (two inches) from the outer edge of the ischium 

 and the obturator fascia ; its fibres slightly diverge as 

 they pass downward to be inserted into the back part 

 of the lower half of the femur, and into the upper and 

 back part of the tibia" (loc. cit., p. 10 1). 1 



1 There are a number of muscles described by Sir Richard Owen 

 for the Apteryx that from one reason or another I have thus far 

 failed to identify with any of those I found in the Raven. 



Of these we are to notice the iliacus internus, the pyramidalis, 

 the adductor brevis feinoris, and the quadratus. 



According to this authority, the iliacus internus in the Apteryx 



