1894.] 



FLEXOR MUSCLES IN BIRDS. 



497 



there is a difference of great interest. The three tendons of the 

 perforated flexors have relations to the outer and inner heads of 

 the muscle exactly as in the Crane. The ambiens is absent in the 

 Heron, and in place of the heads from the ambiens a broad 

 tendinous band arises from the fibula and is distributed to the 

 three parts of the muscle, precisely as the ambiens is distributed in 

 those birds which have it. I bad the advantage of being able to 

 show the actual dissection to my friends Mr. P. E. Beddard and 

 Mr. Parsons, who are experts in muscular anatomy, aud they both 

 agreed with me that the relations of this slip from the fibula 

 strongly suggested that it was a surviving vestige of the distal end 

 of the ambiens tendon. 



Pig. 2. 



jFemur 



Dissection of the right leg of Nycticorax gardeni, seen from the outer side. 

 Lettering as in fig. 1. 



In Eclectus roratus, from a dissection of which fig. 3 (p. 498) was 

 drawn, a similar possible relic of the ambiens is present. In that 

 Parrot the relations of the perforated flexor of the fourth digit to 

 the inner and outer heads of the muscle and to the tendinous band 

 from the fibula are exactly as in the Heron. The outer head of 

 the tendon to the third digit is represented by only a few muscular 

 fibres, and the inner instead of the outer head of the tendon of 

 the second digit is present, but both these tendons have a strong 

 connection with the tendinous band from the fibula. 



