OSTEOLOGY OF BIRDS 25. 



Another suppression takes place on the part of the neural spine 

 among the vertebrae found in mid neck ; it is .but feebly developed 

 in the fifth segment, still more so in the sixth, and is nearly lost 

 in the few following vertebrae as we proceed down the neck. It 

 soon reappears again, however, as a broad, knotlike apophysis, to 

 become compressed from side to side, quadrate, and finally like the 

 anterior dorsals. 



In the Cathartidae we find upon either side a transverse process 

 jutting out from the wall of the vertebral canal, laterally and at 

 the anterior part of the vertebra ; this character is best marked as 

 we approach the dorsal region, and we find that upon those cervical 

 vertebrae with the free ribs it is quite broad and exhibits a metapo- 

 physial ridge. 



Upper cervical vertebrae show long postzygapophysial processes, 

 and throughout the series the arms bearing these articular facets 

 are shortened or lengthened in such a manner as to preserve the 

 decided sigmoidal curve so characteristic of the vulturine neck. 

 As we arrive at the middle of the cervical chain of segments, we 

 notice that the anterior articular facets are barely concave, face 

 directly inward, and so each other, occupying a position, on either 

 side, on the bony ridge that spans the vertebral canal above. 



Epiplcural appendages are never found upon the free ribs of the 

 cervical vertebrae in any of the American vultures, and this seems 

 to obtain pretty generally among the Falconidae, though these ribs 

 become more and more like the true dorsal ones as we proceed irr 

 their direction. 



TABLE FOR THE COMPARISON OF THE VERTEBRAE 



SPECIES 



Cervi- 



cals 



Dorsals 



Sacral 



Coccygeal, 

 exclusive 



of the 

 pygostyle 



Number 

 of pairs of 



free pleura- 

 pophyses 



or cervical 

 ribs 



Number 



of pairs 



of sacral 



ribs 



Gymnogyps californianus . . . 

 Sarcorhamphus gryphus . . . 



17 

 17 

 15 



is 



IS 

 14 



3 

 3 



4 

 4 

 4 

 S 



13 

 13 

 13 

 13 

 14 

 15 

 13 



*6 

 6 



5 

 5 

 6 

 7 



2 

 3 



2 

 3 

 2 

 3 



3 

 3 

 2 

 3 

 2 

 1 



Carthartes a. septentrionalis 



Neophron percnopterus. . . . 

 Micrastur brachypterus .... 



Lateral wings are seen to project horizontally from the centrum 

 of the ultimate cervical beneath, and as we pass to the first dorsal, 

 in the majority of the Cathartidae, these wings still persist, but 



