THE MUSCULATURE OF THE TRUNK. 265 



sheet, the most superficial structure of the kind there 

 found. 



The semi-ligamentous fascia, connecting these two 

 muscles in the median line, and extending forwards 

 to become inserted into the occiput, seems to represent 

 the only thing that birds can claim as the analogue 

 of a ligamentum nuchce. In man, it will be remembered, 

 this important ligament is in the line of union between 

 the two trapezii muscles, and passes between the 

 neural spine of the seventh cervical vertebra and the 

 mid-point of the " superior curved line " of the supra- 

 occipital bone. 



In Cormorants and the Anhinga a free bony " nuchal 

 style" is found projecting from a mid-point upon 

 the occiput, in the convexity upon either side of 

 which a temporal muscle becomes inserted. I am 

 under the impression that I have said elsewhere in 

 my writings, and Coues has made the same statement 

 (Key, second edition, pp. 723, 724), that this bony style 

 of the Cormorants lies in the line of the analogue of 

 the ligamentum, nuchce in birds. But it is evident 

 that it cannot safely be compared in either case 

 with the ligament in question as it occurs in the 

 Mammalia. In short, in view of the fact that there is 

 no evident necessity whatever for the development of 

 such a support to the head in Aves, I must believe 

 that the wisest step to adopt in the premises is to 

 deny the occurrence of the ligamentum nuchce, in 

 their class, altogether. 



124. The rectus capitis anticus minor is a muscle in 

 the fore part of the neck in most birds, which has thus 

 been named and described by both Gurlt and Owen. 

 And if I be correct in my diagnosis of it in Corvus, I 

 find it to arise in the Raven from the apices of the 



