The Framework of the Bird 8 C 



which would hardly afford strength for a single wing- 

 flutter. Since mammals in their high evolulion have 

 found no use for this bone, it has become reduced to a 

 small projection on the shoulder-blade. 



The clavicle we will recognize instantly, when we 

 give it another name — the wish-bone or merry-thought. 



Fig 60. — Pectoral gircllo of hitd (scapulas, roraroids. aixl claviclps); roiiipared 

 with the scapula and coiacoid ol a young Leopard, the lattei hone in the 

 Leopard being reduced to a tiny process. 



In birds the wish-l)one is generall}' \'-shaped, the two 

 clavicles usually meeting and fusing at their ti])s. Througli 

 this V-shaped opening in the neck, the a^sophagus and 

 the windpipe pass from the throat into the })ody cavity. 

 We too have wish-bones, although they are not })laced 

 exactly as are those of a chicken. We call them collar- 

 bones, but l)y whatever name we know them they are 

 of importance, l)oth in ourselves and in birds, in sei-\ing 

 to brace out the shoulders. In creatures which, unlike 



