1 48 ELEMENTS OF OENITHOLOGY. 



dible. It is called the gonys, and this term is especially applied 

 to the posterior point of this line of junction. The gonys line 

 usually forms from a haH to three fourths of the inferior outline 

 of the bUl, but it may form the whole or even more than the 

 whole, extending backwards in a process — as in the Puffin. On 

 the other hand, it is exceedingly short in many other water- 

 birds, e.g. the Duck and especially in the Pelican. The longer 

 may be the gonys, the shorter will be the extent of the space 

 existing between the rami behind it, which is called the inter- 

 ramal space. A hook or claw may exist at the tip of the lower 

 mandible. 



The Neck is always a part of much importance in a bird, not 

 only, as in ourselves, on account of the important organs which 

 pass through it within, but because it has to move like an arm 

 to subserve the hand-like action of the beak. It is, therefore, 

 always very moveable and never very short, while it is some- 

 times, as in the Swan and Plamingo, extremely long. The neck is 

 always long when the legs are long, as otherwise the beak could 

 not reach the ground ; but it may, as we see in the Swan, be 

 very long in proportion to the legs, and this is evident also in 

 the Darter. The Darter and the Heron spear the fish on which 

 they feed, and so the head has to be thrown forward with the 

 greatest rapidity, and at the same time with the greatest 

 accuracy of direction. This is facilitated by the fact that the 

 neck of a bird forms (plainly or hardly perceptibly) a sigmoid 

 curve (the superior concavity and inferior convexity being 

 directed forwards), so conditioned by the shape of the bones 

 and the adjustments of the muscles, that it can be instantly 

 straightened but not bent in contrary curves. The feathers 

 which clothe the neck are named from the regions of it from 

 which they grow. Thus those behind the neck are nuchal or 

 cervical, according as they belong to the upper part of the back 

 of the neck or to its lower part — the nape or nucha. Similarly, 

 the feathers on the lowest part of the front of the neck are those 

 of the prepeetus. Above these are the jugular, then follow the 

 gular, while all of them together are sometimes called guttural. 

 The feathers of the neck are rarely elongated except as a 

 " nuchal crest." But there may be long jugular feathers as in 

 the Heron, and tlie eJongated neck-feathers of the Euff are very 

 remarkable. The neck may be bald here and there, or altogether 

 so, as ia the Vultures. 



