xu 48 ELEMENTS OF ORNITHOLOGY. 
dible. ~ It is called the gonys, and this term is especially applied 
to the posterior point of this line of junction. The gonys line 
usually forms from a half to three fourths of the inferior outline 
of the bill, but it may form the whole or even more than the 
whole, extending backwards in a process—as in the Puffin. On 
the other hand, it is exceedingly short in many other water- 
birds, e.g. the Duck and especially in the Pelican. The longer 
may be the gonys, the shorter will be the extent of the space 
existing between the rami behind it, which is called the iter- 
ramal space. A hook or claw may exist at the tip of the lower 
mandible. 
The Neck is always a part of much importance in a bird, not 
only, as in ourselves, on account of the important organs which 
pass through it within, but because it has to move like an arm 
to subserve the hand-like action of the beak. It is, therefore, 
always very moveable and never very short, while it is some- 
times, as in the Swan and Flamingo, extremely long. The neck is 
always long when the legs are long, as otherwise the beak could 
not reach the ground; but it may, as we see in the Swan, be 
very long in proportion to the legs, and this is evident also in 
the Darter. The Darter and the Heron spear the fish on which 
they feed, and so the head has to be thrown forward with the 
greatest rapidity, and at the same time with the greatest 
accuracy of direction. This is facilitated by the fact that the 
neck of a bird forms (plainly or hardly perceptibly) a sigmoid 
curve (the superior concavity and inferior convexity being 
directed forwards), so conditioned by the shape of the bones 
and the adjustments of the muscles, that it can be instantly 
straightened but not bent in contrary curves. The feathers 
which clothe the neck are named from the regions of it from 
which they grow. Thus those behind the neck are nuchal or 
cervical, according as they belong to the upper part of the back 
of the neck or to its lower part—the nape or nucha. Similarly, 
the feathers on the lowest part of the front of the neck are those 
of the prepectus. Above these are the jugular, then follow the 
gular, while all of them together are sometimes called guttural. 
The feathers of the neck are rarely elongated except as a 
«‘ nuchal crest.” But there may be long jugular feathers as in 
the Heron, and the elongated neck-feathers of the Ruff are very 
remarkable. The neck may be bald here and there, or altogether 
so, as in the Vultures. 
