AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN. 101 
thick, which runs within the membrane of the gular sac, parallel to the 
mandible, and about half an inch distant from it, sending off branches 
at intervals. The sac is plentifully supplied with bloodvessels. 
The nasal cavity is of an oblong form, 1 inch and 5 twelfths in 
length, passing obliquely backwards and upwards from the aperture of 
the posterior nares, and opening externally by curving forwards ; its 
greatest diameter 5 twelfths, in its lower third 3 twelfths, and so con- 
tinuing until it expands into the inferior slit-like aperture, which is 8 
twelfths long. The cavity of the nose is thus small, and the olfactory 
nerve, which passes out from the anterior part of the brain, is a slender 
filament, about 4 of a twelfth in diameter. It runs at first through a 
bony tube, then passes along the bony septum of the orbits, in contact 
for a short space with the superior maxillary nerve of the fifth pair, 
which at its commencement makes a great curve upwards, and crosses 
the orbit to enter the maxillary cavity, which has no communication 
with the olfactory. Fig. 2 represents the sternum viewed from before. 
It is remarkable chiefly for its great breadth and convexity. Its sides, 
a, b, c, d, are nearly parallel; its posterior margin broad, with two 
shallow notches, ¢, f, separated by a short conical obtuse median pro- 
cess. The crest or ridge, 4, 7, is carried forward in front, where it is only, 
however, of moderate height, and is not continued to the posterior ex- 
tremity, but terminates at 2, in the most convex part. The coracoid 
bones, 7, 7, are extremely large, very broad at their lower part, and 
having a-deep groove and thin elongated process, j, at the upper for the 
tendon of the pectoralis medius, which raises the wing. The furcula, 
k, k, 1, is anchylosed with the crest of the sternum, at 4, has its crura 
moderately stout and much diverging, and its upper extremity very 
broad and recurvate. The scapula, of which only the anterior process 
Z, 1, is seen, is small. A sternal apparatus like this indicates a steady 
and powerful flight, the wings being supported upon a very firm basis, 
and well separated. The great mass of the pectoral muscle being 
thrown forward, it acts more directly than in such birds as the Gallinz 
and Ducks, in which it is placed farther backwards, and although its 
bulk is not so great as in them, it is more advantageously situated. 
The sternal apparatus of this Pelican is thus extremely similar to that 
of the Cormorant, and the American Anhinga, and is also constructed 
