B I K 





6 I 



tect the bill (the upper port of which may bo considered as 

 an elongation of the intermaxillary bones) anil the *kull 

 from the .-hocks of the former organ when used in pecking; 

 violently against hard subsume 



In a few instances the upper jaw is entirely immm.iMe. 

 Bluroenbarh gives the rhinoceros bird and the cock <>t' the 

 wood (Tflni't Crogalliu} as instance*. 



lionet of the neck and trunk. The upper, or, to speak 

 more correctly, the anterior extremities of birds are calcu- 

 lated for flight, and entirely useless as prehensile organs, 

 because the bird depends principally upon its bill to gather 

 its food. To give a greater freedom of action to this organ, 

 it was necessary, as the bones of the bock have hardly any 

 motion (the dorsal vertebra) being often anchylosed or im- 

 movably fixed by a continuation of bony secretion), that the 

 neck should be long; and flexible; and eminently flexible it 

 it. In the mammifers the number of cervical vertebra; 

 (neck-bones) is seven ; the cameleopard has no more, and 

 the elephant and whale have no less. Cuvier, indeed, ghes 

 the sloth nine; Thomas Bell, however, has satisfactorily 

 made out that the additional two are bones of the back, not 

 of the neck. But, in birds, Nature has made up for the 

 deficiency of motion in the back (a deficiency absolutely ne- 

 cessary to the comfortable existence of the animal, inasmuch 

 as the back is the point of support to the wings) by the free 

 grant of cervical vertebne, according to the wonts which the 

 peculiar habits of particular birds require. Thus the raven 

 has twelve neck- bones, the domestic cock thirteen, the os- 

 trich eighteen, the stork nineteen, and the swan twenty- 

 three, the largest number, it is believed, yet detected, while 

 the minimum amounts to ten. The articulation is so con- 

 trived as to produce the greatest mobility, and that the con- 

 trivance is complete is proved by the ability of a bird to 

 touch every point of its body with its bill. 



The vertebrae of the back are from seven to eleven in 

 number. There are no true lumbar vertebra?, for they are 

 consolidated into one piece with the pelvis (os innominafiim) 

 which is elongated, broad, and simple, and does not unite 

 below, as in mammifers, to form what is called the sym- 

 physis pubis, but has the lateral portions distant from each 

 other. This is the general rule. The pelvis of the ostrich 

 forms an exception ; for it is joined below like that of nio>l 

 quadrupeds. In most of the quadrupeds the rump-bone 

 (os coccygis) is prolonged into a truejointed tail. In birds 

 it never is, but is very short, although it supports the large 

 tail-feathers (rectricet) 



Ten pairs of ribs are said to form the maximum among 

 birds ; these, the true ribs, are joined to the breast-bone 

 (sternum) by small intervening bones. The false ribs 

 (those which do not reach the breast-bone) have a forward 

 direction. There is a peculiar flat process directed upwards 

 and backwards attached to the middle pairs of the true ribs. 



The breast-bnne (sternum), a part of the greatest conse- 

 quence, being the point of attachment for the most powerful 

 of the muscles which set the wings in action, is composed of 

 five pieces strongly joined together, and prolonged below 

 into a crest (critta) for that purpose. The greater or less 

 development of this crest or keel, and the greater or less 

 ossification of the component parts of the breast-bone, de- 

 pend upon the wants of the bird. Those birds whose flight 

 is strongest and most continuous have the crest very large, 

 and the breast-bone pieces very firmly cemented together, 

 as any one may see who will examine the breast bum- of a 

 hawk, or eagle, or that of a humming-bird ; while in the 

 ostrich and cassowary this ere-t is entirely absent, and the 

 breast-bone presents "a uniformly arched surface, somewhat 

 like that of a Highlander's target. 



In the crane and in the male wild-swan there is a cavity 

 in the anterior part of the breast-bone for the reception of 

 the involuted wind-pipe (trachea). The connexion of the 

 wings with the trunk is managed by means of the two 

 clavicles, and of that peculiar fork-like clastic bone com- 

 monly called the merry-thought, by the French fourrhetic 

 and lunette (furrula). This apparatus operates as an 

 antagonist power to the action which would bring the wings 

 together in flight, did not these bones, especially the merry- 

 tkatukt, keep the shoulders asunder. The greater < 

 development of this hone depends on the exigencies of each 

 particular case. In birds whose (light is long and rapid it 

 is strong, with the branches widely arched and carried for- 

 wards on the body ; in birds which do not fly at all, in the 

 ostrich, cassowary, and emu, for instance, the bone becomes 

 a mere rudiment. ' In the ostrich,' as Macartney observes, 



the two branches are very short, and never united, but an- 

 chylosed with the scapula (shoulder-blade) and clavicle 

 (collar-bone). In the cassowary there .ire merely two little 

 processes from the side of the clavicle winch are the nidi- 

 menu of the branches of the fork. In the emu there are 

 two very small thin bones attached to the anterior edge of the 

 dorsal ends of the clavicles by ligaments : they are directed 

 upwards towards the neck, where they are fastened to each 

 other by means of a ligament, and have no connexion what- 

 ever with the sternum.' 



The icing-bones may he compared with the arms or upper 

 extremities of man and of the monkeys. Indeed Bclon has 

 shown with much ingenuity, though the design lie rudely 

 executed by the engraver, the resemblance between the 

 skeleton of a bird and of a man a resemblance greater, 

 perhaps, than would be expected. The following are the 

 bones composing the wing of a bird. The arm (os humrrh : 

 the fore-arm, consisting of two bones (ulna and radius) ; 

 the wrist (carpus), formed by two bones : the mrtacarpia, 

 also made up of two bones ; a thumb, or rather the rudi- 

 ment of one, there being but a single bone ; and two lingers. 

 the finger next the thumb consisting of two portions, and 

 the other only of one. To this hand are attached the 

 primaries, or greater quill-feathers ; the secondaries are 

 affixed to \.\\c fire-arms ; and the arm supports leathers of 

 inferior strength and development, called ter/iaries and sca- 

 pulars. The bone which represents the thumb gives rise to 

 the bastard quills, and along the base of the quilts ore 

 ranged the largest of those feathers which are denominated 

 wing coverts. Such is the structure of the 'sail-broad 

 vans' which waft the condor over the Andes. 



Bones of the lower or posterior extremities. These con- 

 sist of a thigh-bone (femur) : leg-bones (tibia and fibula), 

 for there are two, though the fibula is very small, and be- 

 comes anchylosed to the tibia ; one mctaiarsal bone (at the 

 lower end of which there are as many processes as there are 

 toes, each process furnished with a pulley for moving its 

 corresponding toe), and the toes. Of these, three generall) 

 are directed forwards and one backwards. This back toe, 

 or great toe, is wanting in some birds. In the swallows it 

 is directed forwards; in the climbing birds the outer toe as 

 well as the back toe are directed backw ards. The number 

 of joints is, generally, progressive ; the back toe has two, 

 the next three, the middle toe four, and the outer toe five 

 joints. 



