^4 GENERAL OBNITHOLOGY. 



bones. The numerous cmchylosed (or confluent) vertebrse compose the saertmi,. The haunch- 

 hones or osga immminata consist on each sidp of three bones, ilium, ischium, and pubis, in adult 

 life more or less perfectly anchylosed. Where they all three come together is the hip-joint. 

 The remaining bones, usually included among those of the body proper, are the coccygeal or 

 caudal vertebrae. (For anatomical detail see beyond, under Osteology, etc.) 



Topography of the Body. — Besides being thus divided into head, neck, trunk, and mem- 

 bers, the exterior of the body is further subdivided or mapped out into regions for the purposes 

 of description. It is necessary for the student to become familiar with the "topography " of a 

 bird, as this kind of mapping out may be called, for the names of the regions or outer areas 

 are incessantly used in ordinary descriptive ornithology. Many more names have been applied 

 than are in common use ; I shall try to define and explain all those which are usually em- 

 ployed, beginning with the parts of the tody, and ending with those of the members. 



1. REGIONS OF TBE BODY. 



Upper and Under Parts. — Draw a line from the corner of the mouth along the side of 

 the head and neck to and through the shoulder-joint and thence along the side of the body to 

 the root of the tail ; all above this line, including the upper surfaces of the wings and tail, are 

 upper parts ; all below it, including under surfaces of wings and tail, are under parts ; for 

 ■which the short words " above " and " below " often stand. Tlie distinction is purely arbi- 

 trary, but so- convenient as to he practically indispensable. It will be seen how an otherwise 

 lengthy description, enumerating parts that lie over or under the "lateral line" can be 

 put in so few words as, for example, " above, green; below, yellow." Many birds colors have 

 some such simple general distribution. These parts are also the dorsal (Lat. dorsum, back) 

 and ventral (Lat. venter, belly) surfaces or aspects. The upper parts of the body proper, or 

 trunk, have also received the general name oinotccum (6r. vmros, notes, back) ; the under parts, 

 similarly restricted, that of gastr/Bum (Gr. yaa-TTjp, gaster, belly) : but these tenns are not 

 much used now. These two are never naked, while both head and neck may be variously bare 

 of feathers. The only exception is the transient condition of certain birds during incubation, 

 "when, like the eider duck, they pull ofi' feathers to furnish the nest, or when the plumage, as 

 usually happens, wears off. The gastrseum is rarely ornamented with feathers different in 

 texture or structure from those of the plumage at large ; but such a case is furnished by our 

 Lewis's woodpecker (Asyndesmus torquaius). The notseum, on the contrary, is often the seat 

 of extraordinary development of feathers, either in size, shape, or texture, or all three of these 

 qualities ; as the singularly elegant dorsal plumes of many herons. Individual feathere of the 

 notseum are generally pennaceous, and for the most part straight and lanceolate ; and as a 

 whole lie smoothly shingled or imbricated. The ventral feathers are usually more largely 

 plumulaceous, and less flat and imbricated, but even more compact, that is thicker, than those 

 of the upper parts ; especially among water birds, where they are more or less curly, and 

 very thick set. There are subdivisions of the 



Notseum. — Beginning where the neck ends, and ending where the tail-coverts begin 

 (see flg. 25, 12), this part of a bird is subdivided into back (Lat. dorsum ; fig. 25, 11) and 

 rump (Lat. wropygium ; fig. 25, 13). These are in direct continuation of each other, and their 

 limits are not precisely defined ; the feathers of both are of the pteryla dorsaUs. In general, we 

 should call the anterior two-thirds or three-fourths of notseum " back," and the rest " rump." 

 "With the foiTner are generally included the scapular or shoulder-feathers, scapulars or scapu- 

 laries ; these are they that grow on the pterylce humerales. The region of notseum they repre- 

 sent is called scapulare (Lat. scapula, shoulder-blade), and that part of notseum strictly 



