34 Shufeldt, Skeleton of Kea Parrot (Nestor notabilis). [,^f"Tui, 



The first eleven vertebrse of the neck or cervicals bear no ribs 

 at all ; on the twelfth there occurs a small pair that have but the 

 head and neck, the body being lacking entirely, and they are 

 freely articulated in the usual manner. Passing to the thirteenth 

 vertebra, it is to be noted that the pair of ribs are far better 

 developed than on the twelfth ; each has a length of about two 

 centimeters, but they do not support epiplenral appendages, nor 

 do they, upon either side, meet with costal ribs below. In the 

 case of the fourteenth or last cervical vertebra, its pair of ribs are 

 completely developed as cervical ribs, for their articulations with 

 the vertebra are perfect, while the ribs themselves possess small 

 epiplenral spines, which anchylose each with the border of its 

 rib, just as do those in the dorsal series following them. 



Twelfth cervical vertebra possesses a neural spine closely 

 resembling those found on the dorsals, its height being about 

 the' same, while longitudinally it is not so wide antero-posteriorly. 

 These neural spines on the thirteenth and fourteenth cervicals 

 are essentially like the corresponding ones in the dorsal series 

 (Plate VIL, fig. 13). 



The atlas has its cup perforated, and to such an extent that a 

 minute median deficiency occurs in its superior periphery. Its 

 hvperapophyses are extremely small, while its big, shield-shaped 

 haemapophysis is mesially keeled, the whole being produced back- 

 wards beyond all the rest of the bone. 



The vertebral artery passes the centra of both the axis and the 

 atlas on the way into the cranium, while in the third vertebra, 

 and throughout the rest of the cervical series, it is, upon either 

 side, extensively shielded by bone formed by the lateral processes 

 of any particular vertebra as it passes it. Near the end of the 

 cervical series, one or two of the rudimentary pleurapophyses, on 

 either side, perform a similar service. 



Third, fourth, and fifth cervicals possess bluntly-pointed and 

 lofty neural spines, the third and fourth also having well- 

 developed haemal spines, the one on the fifth being aborted. On 

 the sixth cervical the neural spine is extremely small, and it lacks 

 a haemal one entirely. No neural spines occur on the seventh, 

 eighth, or ninth, and they are small on the tenth and eleventh. 

 Apparently the carotid arteries passed through the haemapophysis 

 of the ninth vertebra, while it is an open canal in the sixth, 

 seventh, and eighth. In the fifth and sixth cervicals the post- 

 zygapophyses are elongate and spreading ; they gradually shorten 

 after that, and in the last cervical they agree with what is to be 

 found in the dorsal series. Second, third, and fourth cervicals 

 have the pre- and post-zygapophyses very much shortened up, 

 so that, when articulated, these elements of the spine are more 

 extensively in touch among each other. 



There is a good-sized neural canal throughout the spine in the 

 Parrot, it being of a somewhat larger calibre in the cervical series 

 than it is in the dorsal. 



Passing to the dorsal vertebra, wc find their big, quadrilateral 



