Jan. 27, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



WILL MEN EVER FLY ?— II. 



(Continued Jrom p. 53.) 



PASSING over many minor details, which lack of space 

 will not permit us to particularize, let us see how 

 same requirements are met in the case of the bird. 



Again the strength of the skeleton and the muscular 

 system is concentrated into the fore parts of the 

 body, as the illustration (Fig. 2) we give of the 



or " neck " bones, which, sustaining the wing at one ex- 

 tremity, and at the other being firmly attached to the 

 breast-bone, form the principal support of the shoulder, 

 and, secondly, into the " merry-thought," which adds 

 very greatly to the strength of this part of the frame. 



The breast-bone, like that of the bat, is deeply keeled, 

 but in a far more striking degree ; and this is rendered 

 necessary by the enormous size of the pectoral, or wing- 

 muscles. These form the whole of what we generally 



Skeleton of Eagle; 



skeleton of an eagle plainly shows. Not only are 

 the bones themselves stout and strong, but the 

 thoracic vertebrae are firmly consolidated together, 

 while splints of bone, so to speak, spring from the trans- 

 verse processes and overlap one another, thus greatly 

 adding to the rigidity of that portion of the spine upon 

 which the strain of flight is thrown. The shoulder-blade 

 is completely changed in character, and assumes the form 

 of a long, narrow bone lying parallel with the spine 

 along the dorsal region of the thorax. The collar-bone is 

 strikingly and curiously modified, first into the coracoid. 



term the " breast " of the bird, and most of us know to 

 what dimensions they attain even in domestic poultry, 

 whose powers of flight are not of the most striking de- 

 scription. And in such birds as the hawks, the swallows, 

 and the gulls they are far larger and more prominent. 



The uses of the tail, as a rudder, need not be enlarged 

 upon ; no one who has ever watched the evolutions of 

 martins and swallows can fail to have noticed how very 

 important are its functions. And it is equally needless to 

 point out that man possesses no tail. 



The lungs of the bird, again like those of the bat, are 



