112 THE PHILOSOPHY 



* that feveral of thefe holes are placed together, near that end of the ■ 



* bone which is next to the trunk of the bird ; and are diftinguilh- 

 ' able by having their external edges rounded off; which is not the 

 ' cafe with the holes through which either nerves or blood-veffels 



* pafs into the fubftance of the bone *.' 



Mr Hunter afterwards informs us, that the lungs, at the anterior 

 part, open into a number of membranous cells, which lie upon the 

 fides of the pericardium, and communicate with thofe of the fter- 

 num. At the fuperior part, the lungs open into the large cells of 

 a loofe net- work, through which the wind- pipe, gullet, and large 

 vefTels, pafs as they proceed to and from the heart. Thefe cells, 

 when diftended with air, augment confiderably the part where they 

 are fituated ; and this augmentation, or fwelling, is generally a mark 

 either of anger or of love. This tumefadlion is remarkable in the 

 turkey-cock, in the pouting pigeon, and in the breaft of a goofe 

 when flie cackles. Thefe cells communicate with others in the ax- 

 illa, under the large pedoral mufcle. \n moft birds, the axillary 

 cells communicate with the cavity of the os humeri by fraall open- 

 ings in the hollow furface near the head of that bone. In fome 

 birds, thefe cells are continued down the wing, and communicate 

 with the ulna and radius; in others, they extend even to the pi- 

 nions. Thje pofterior edges of the lungs open into the cells of the 

 vertebrae, into' thofe of the ribs, the canal of the fpinal marrow, the 

 facrum, and other bones of the pelvis ; from thefe parts the air finds 

 3. palTage into the thigh-bone. ' Thus,' continues our learned and 

 indefatigable author, ' the cells of the abdomen, thofe furrounding 



* the pericardium, thofe fituated at the lower and forepart of the 



* neck, and in the axilla, thofe in the cellular membrane under tha 

 ' pedloral mufcles, as well as in that which unites the fkin to the 



' body^ 



* Hunter's Obfervations on certain parts of the Animal Oeconomy, pag. 79. 



