418 



SKELETONS OF BIRDS. 



to use the phrase of one of the greatest naturalists of this or any other 

 time, "adapted to certain habits," and do not, of necessity and alone, 

 reveal the bird's true position in the system of nature, any more than 

 the binding of a book tells us with certainty what its contents may be. 

 It is pretty generally admitted among those who have studied the 

 orteology of birds that the most characteristic portions of the ornithic 

 skeletons are the cranium or skull, and the sternal apparatus, or bones 

 of the breast, to which are attached the muscles governing the motions 

 of the wings, and thus serving to support the bird during its flight. 

 Now, though a skillful artist, in his own workshop, may do otherwise, 

 it is, as has been above mentioned, almost impossible for a field col- 

 lector to preserve the former, except as part and parcel of the skin. 

 But there is not the slightest reason why the latter — the sternal appa- 

 ratus — should not in all cases be saved entire. The trouble involved 

 thereby is not great, and a very little practice will enable the traveling 

 naturalist to save these, the most characteristic bones, even when it is 

 absolutely necessary, as it often is, for him to use the most of every 

 specimen he obtains as food. 



Fig. 1. 



Fig. 2. 



The best method of preparing examples of the sternal apparatus or 

 breast bone is as follows : The skin of the bird having been taken off, 

 the operator passes a knife along either side of the keel or ridge of the 

 sternum {a a,) turning back, as he proceeds, the muscles of the breast, 

 and cutting through the ribs (b b) at some little distance from their 

 points of union with the sternum. / The wing bones (c c) must next be 



