OF GALLINACEOUS BIRDS AND TINAMOUS. 229 



soft in the old bird ; but the bone has its outline parallel with that of the cartilage. In 

 the Apteryx the xiphisternal end is all ossified ; but it is a mere pointed flap, scarcely 

 larger than the hyposternal, and yet, curious enough, has its margins notched near the 

 end — a curious promise this of what the anatomist so frequently finds as he ascends in 

 the scale of bird-life. I have no doubt that the hyposternum of the Tinamou is 

 that of the Fowl, minus the elegant pedate outer crus ; if so, it is the inner hypo- 

 sternal process alone, and not, like that of the Rail, the outer minus the inner. Yet 

 this view must not be carried too far ; for we see that even in the Apteryx, as well 

 as in the Ostrich and Cassowary, the inner or submesial notch appears, whilst in them 

 the outer part of the sternum behind must of necessity answer to the long, delicate 

 hyposternum of the Tinamou. 



The wings of the Tinamou (Pi. XXXIX.) are of the size of those of a medium Domestic 

 Fowl : at first sight they are not to be distinguished from them ; but upon closer inspec- 

 tion it may be seen that they are lighter, not so thick in proportion to their length, and 

 that the muscular prominences are not so pronounced. In the humerus {h.) the pneumatic 

 passage is of the same shape and nearly of the same size, and lies in a similar recess ; the 

 crest, however, for the insertion of the pectoralis major is not turned over as in the 

 Fowl : this answers to the extreme (struthious) thinness of that muscle in the Tinamou, 

 this bird having but little power to depress his wings. He can elevate them, however, 

 and the middle pectoral muscles are as large as in most birds, the surface on the heel 

 for their origin being 8 lines deep in front ; whilst that for the pectoralis major is only 

 2\ lines : the knob for the insertion of the middle pectoral is as large in the Tinamou 

 as in the Fowl. It is highly interesting to see the Tinamou lift his wings, just in the 

 same manner as the Ostrich elevates hers ; so that that same very ancient zoologist 

 was most true to nature when he spoke of the Ostrich in this way — 



"What time she lifteth up herself on high, she scometh the horse and his rider." 

 The bird does not merely raise her head, and elevate her body ; she lifts her wings, and 

 expands her whole person. 



The Tinamou's "organs of flight" are still much more rudimentary than those of 

 the Fowl, seeing that they are constructed far more for elevation than for depression, 

 the latter movement being the one so necessary to flight. The quill-buttons on the 

 ulna (m.) are, as in the Fowl, nearly obsolete ; and the ulna and radius (r.) are both 

 much alike in both birds, save that in the Tinamou they are altogether lighter and 

 more elegant. The two carpals (cp.), the three metacarpals (mcp.), the three proximal 

 digits {dg.), and the one subdistal joint may all be dismissed in the same manner. The 

 humerus of both Fowl and Tinamou is relatively longer than in the Syrrhaptes and 

 Pigeon, being only 2 lines shorter than the ulna ; and whilst in those better fliers 

 the hand is much the longest part, in the Tinamou the ulna is more than 4 lines 

 longer than the " hand :" the measurements of this bird's wing-bones are — humerus 

 2 in. 11'^ lin., ulna 3 in. \\ lin., hand (metacarpus and phalanges) 2 in. 9 lin. 



