238 THE MYOLOGY OF THE RAVEN. 



" This fact is useful to be borne in mind in identifying 

 these tendons in our dissections. Now after they pass a 

 short distance down the back of the tarso-metatarsal bone 

 their behaviour in different birds is quite diverse, and 

 a few examples of it will be here presented in order to 

 show that when our knowledge becomes more full in the 

 premises, the character wdll prove a useful one in classi- 

 fication of birds ; and also it is hoped to induce those 

 interested in the science of anatomy to undertake and 

 carefully record researches upon this subject. Before 

 arriving at the podal phalanges, and in the sole of the 

 foot of any bird, these tendons divide into a sufficient 

 number of slips to be distributed to the former, one slip 

 going to each toe. The method of division is the 

 same for the bulk of avian families, and the more uni- 

 versal type is well exemplified in the Common Chicken 

 (Gallus). 



"Fig. 65 quat. of this paper shows this arrangement 

 in the Fowl, and there we observe that the tendon of the 

 flexor to the first toe is external to the tendon of the 

 flexor pc^florans digitorum 'profitndus as it passes the 

 ankle-joint. 



" At the back of the tarsus it crosses the latter super- 

 ficially, and then passing directly to the under side of the 

 hind-toe it becomes inserted into the base of its ungual 

 phalanx. 



" Now the larger tendon of the f. j)- digitorwn j)ro- 

 fundus, after arriving at the sole of the foot, trifurcates, 

 and a slij) is sent to the under side of each anterior toe, 

 where passing forwards they too become inserted at the 

 bases of the ungual digits of the respective phalanges. 

 Just above this trifurcation the tendons of these two 

 muscles however, are connected, and that by a fibrous 

 vinculum {¥\g. 65 quat., Vn) which passes between them. 



