THE GANNET'S OSTEOLOGY 509 



Mr. Pycraft holds that the keel of a Gannet's breastbone 

 makes up for its deficiency in depth by its growth forwards, 

 which, it will be noticed, takes it quite beyond the anterior 

 lateral processes, so that the carina projects far beyond the 

 bases of the coracoids. 



In front, and on either side, as may be seen from the cut,* 

 the sternum of a Gannet exhibits a large, prominent wedge, 

 affording attachment for the supra-coracoidous muscle. 



LEFT CORACOID (AFTER SHUFELDT). 



The Coracoids. — The coracoid bones, so called from some 

 supposed likeness between the upper border of the " neck " 

 of the human shoulder-blade and a Raven's beak, form, 

 with the scapula, the point of attachment for the wing, 

 and are held to be among the most characteristic bones 

 of the ornithic skeleton (" Dictionary of Birds," pp. 104, 

 856). Besides being of unusual power, in the Gannet they 

 are set on very obliquely. From the Coracoids we pass to 



* Copied by permission from Dresser's " Birds of Europe " ; an external 

 view of the same bone is given on page 398. 



