38 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS 



Plover). The inner margin of the claw on the 

 third toe or digit of some birds is toothed, 

 serrated, or pectinated as in the ^Goatsucker, the 

 Herons, the Cormorants, the Coursers, Pratin- 

 coles and some of the Grouse. 



From the trunk and limbs we pass to the 

 head or rather the skull, the last portion of 

 the avine skeleton we have now to consider. 

 The complicated nature of this part of the 

 skeleton and the large amount of space that 

 would be required to render its description at 

 all intelligible to the average reader, make a 

 detailed notice of the numerous parts here im- 

 possible. The student or interested reader may 

 therefore be referred to some standard work 

 on vertebrate anatomy (such as Owen's, or better 

 still the masterly contributions of Dr. Gadow 

 to Professor Newton's Dictionary of Birds), 

 where full particulars may be obtained. The 

 various bones of the head, it may be stated, 

 fall naturally into several groups, as, for instance, 

 those forming the Cranium, which includes all 

 the bony and cartilaginous parts of the skull 

 except the jaws and the palato-pterygo-quadrate 

 bones, those appertaining to the visceral arches 

 which give rise to the Hyoid Apparatus, the 

 palate and the jaws. The Bill lends itself to 



