THE WEAPONS AND WINGS OF BIRDS. 



657 



wing, must have beeu capable of hitting a pretty liard blow, even if, as 

 is probable, it was surrounded by thick, callous skin. The outer end 

 of the forearm (radius) is also rough and swollen, and it looks very 

 much as if this enlargement of the bone had originally been brought 

 about by the solitaire's combative habits, the wrist joint having beeu 

 banged and bruised until that diseased outgrowth known as exostosis 



Fig. 1. 



PART OK WIN(J OF SOLITAIKE, PEZOPUAPS SOI.lTAKllS. 



Showing outgrowth of bone on radius auil iiietacarims (natural size). 



C.it. .No. IMliSl, U. S. N. .M. 



took place, and tinally became a constant character of the bird. Dr. 

 Weismann might object to this, but to a Xeo-Lamarckian the thing 

 seems quite i)lausible. 



The true game birds, fowls and pheasants, which have spurs on their 

 legs, have none on their wings, although, as everyone knows who has 

 seen a quarrel in the barnyard, they use their wings in fighting. Some 

 of their Australian cousins, however, the mound-builders, or megapodes, 

 which have no leg S])urs, have blunt tubercles on their wings, very much 

 like those found among pigeons. 



Although the swan, as we have seen, has no wing spurs and trusts 

 to the sheer force of its wing stroke, some of its near relatives, the 



Fig. 2. 



OUTEK POKTIliN OK WIN(J OK SPUR- WINGED GOOSE, PLECTItOI'TEKt'S OAMBENSIS. 

 KedlK't'll. 



African Spur-winged Geese {Plccfropteri), have a very peculiarly armed 

 pinion. The peculiarity lies in the fact that while in most spur- winged 

 birds the spur does not occur n\)on the wrist itself, but upon the meta- 

 carpus, or next row of bones, in the Spur-winged (loose (fig. 2) that 

 one of the wrist bones known as the radiale projects quite beyond the 

 other bones and is capped with a sharp spur. 



The majority of spur- winged birds are plovers, nearly related to the 

 common Lapwing, Vanellus cristatKs, and ])laced by different system- 

 atists in various genera and subgenera named from tlieir spurs or the 

 H. :\lis. 184, ])t. 2 42 



