52 THE STRUCTURE AND LIFE OF BIRDS ch. iv 



fused with the tibia, the stronger of the two leg bones. 

 All species seem to have been tending towards this 

 birdlike fusion. The pelvis is very like that of birds 

 in its form and in its strength. The ilium extends 

 far in front of and behind the thigh joint, and the two 

 other pelvic bones, the ischium and pubis, extend 

 downwards and backwards. If the pelvis of a dino- 

 saur and an emeu be put side by side, the resemblance 

 is most striking. 



Had the pterodactyl had the legs and hind-quarters 

 of the dinosaur, it would have been still more birdlike 

 than it is. 



Some of the Literature of the Subject. 



Besides books mentioned at the end of Chapter II, a number 

 of papers by Professor H. G. Seeley, Hutchinson's Extinct 

 Monsters, and Huxley's Vertebrate Anatomy. 



