212 THE MYOLOGY OF THE EAYEN. 



in the bird we now liave under consideration. Its 

 carneous portion is divided into two very distinct parts, 

 which, though moulded together, are easUy separable 

 clear down to that point where they unite with their 

 common tendon below. The inner head^ — if we may be 

 permitted to so term these divisions— arises immediately 

 beneath the peroneus longus from a semilunar area 

 high up between the pro- and ectocnemial crests on 

 the anterior aspect of the head of the tibia. This 

 division forms the anterior half of the muscle, its origin 

 being quite extensive, and principally fleshy. The 

 " outer head " of the muscle arises by a short, strong 

 tendon from the base of a little pit found upon the 

 antero-inferior ridge of the outer condyle of the femur. 

 This head is overlapped by the fascia of the knee- 

 joint and the great flexor at the 1)ack of the leg, but, 

 passing beneath these, it immediately moulds itself 

 upon the anterior half, though there is no blending of 

 fibres whatever, it being situate completely behind it. 

 The two then pass directly down the front of the leg 

 as a large and handsome fusiform muscle. At the lower 

 third of the bone their fibres converge to a point, to 

 become attached to a strong and powerful tendon 

 common to the two divisions ; this, passing through the 

 oblique, fil)ro-cartilaginous bridge just above the tibial 

 condyles, goes directly, in the antero-median line, to 

 a point on the shaft of the tarso-metatarsus just below 

 the head of that bone, where it is finally inserted upon 

 a tul^ercle, there found, and which is intended for it. 



Both the j^c^'onetis longus and the tibialis anticus are 

 well developed in such a bird as Geococcyx calif or nianus, 

 and have essentially the same origins and insertions as 



Vorderer Schienbeinmuskel. Meckel, System, 370, No. 1 ; Archiv, 



p. 272, No. 1. 

 Levator 2)edis. d' Alton, p. 36." 



