CHAPTER IV 
THE SKULL 
BIRD’S skull has been called a “poem in bone— 
its architecture is the frozen music of morphol- 
the rhythmic rhymes of the myriad amoebiform animals 
which constructed the noble edifice when they sang 
together.” We should all “be able to whistle some bars 
of the cranial song—the pterygo-palatine bar at least.” 
We perhaps know that there are twenty-eight bones 
in our own head, and if we attempt to dissect the skull of 
a fish we will find many more, but at first glance the 
skull of our chicken seems to be composed of but one 
solid bone. Indeed, if we except the lower jaw and a 
few others, such as the two little bones which unite it 
to the skull, the entire cranium is soldered together, and 
the lines of junction obliterated. In young birds these 
seams are more or less visible, although the soldering 
process begins very early. 
The origin of the skull is wrapped in obscurity, and 
neither the student of fossil bones, nor of those beneath 
the skin of living creatures, nor vet the diligent watcher 
of the mysterious panorama of life in the egg, can tell 
us very much, although many theories have heen sug- 
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