PHASIANUS PHEASANT. Ill 



feathers are curv^ed, have very short tubes, rather large spongy 

 shafts, their downy part extended to two thirds of their length, 

 the plumule long, narrow, and densely downy. The wings 

 are short, broad, rounded, curved, the third and fourth quills 

 longest, the secondary quills nearly as long as the primary. 

 Tail long, graduated, slightly curved or straight, of eighteen 

 tapering feathers. 



The skeleton, more than perhaps any other portion of the ani- 

 mal structure, excepting the digestive organs, affords charac- 

 teristic differences, which are readily perceptible by a practised 

 eye. The skeleton of the Common Pheasant, Phasianus col- 

 chicus, compared with that of birds belonging to other fami- 

 lies, exhibits the following peculiarities, most of which are 

 more or less distinctive of the Gallinaceous order, excluding 

 always the Pigeons, which are in many respects very dif- 

 ferent. 



The head is comparatively small, its occipital portion rather 

 elongated, the frontal outline sloping. The orbits, large in all 

 birds, are comparatively of moderate size, the septum between 

 them complete. The superciliary bone is rather large, the 

 nasal vacuity elliptical. The jaws are comparatively short, 

 the upper tapering and a little decurved, the lower also curved 

 a little downwards. The jugal bone is slender, and the os 

 quadratum to which both jaws are articulated, is forked above. 

 The cervical vertebrae are twelve ; the dorsal nine. There are 

 nine ribs, the first merely rudimentary, the second very short 

 and not attached to the sternum, the rest complete, that is, hav- 

 ing a vertebral and a sternal portion ; five of them are fur- 

 nished with posterior ascending processes ; and they are all 

 very slender and thin. There are thirteen lumbar and sacral 

 vertebrae, anchylosed with the pelvis into a large thin bone. 

 Six of the dorsal vertebrae are also anchylosed or united. The 

 coccygeal are seven, the first generally united to the sacrum, 

 the last apparently composed of two united. 



The sternum is long, but very incomplete, there being two 

 deep vacuities, filled with membrane, on each side, leaving only 

 two very slender processes ; the central piece is also very nar- 



