32 SORTATION. 



It will be seen at once that the wing- answers to the man's arm 

 from the elbow downwards. Only so much of the humerus — called 

 the " funnybone," from the pun on humorous, which has become 

 classical — is left in the drawing as to show its position. Joined on to it 

 at the elbow are the radius and ulna, just as in the human arm, 

 leading on to what represents our wrist and hand. At the joint are 

 the scaphoid and cuneiform bones ; and leading on from them is the 

 well-developed second metacarpal, with a rudimentary first meta- 

 carpal on one side of it, and a more easily recognisable third 

 metacarpal on the other ; to the first metacarpal all that exists of the 

 first finger is attached ; to the second metacarpal hang the joints of 

 the second finger ; while the third metacarpal has the only repre- 

 sentative of the three joints of the third finger. On the first finger, 

 answering to our pollex, or thumb, grows the " bastard wing ; " on 

 the other fingers and metacarpals, up to the wrist joint, come the 

 "primary" feathers; and on the ulna come the "secondary" feathers, 

 often called the " cubitals." 



The most important point to be noticed at this stage is that the 

 flight feathers, or " remiges " as they are generally called — from the 

 Latin remex, an oarsman — are divided into primaries and secondaries 

 at tiie carpal joint, just where the cuneiform comes, and that the 

 secondaries fit into little pits along the ulna, while the primaries are 

 distributed over the hand and fingers, or, to speak more technically, 

 over the lower metacarpals and the phalanges of the lower digits. 

 The secondaries vary a good deal, but the typical number of primaries 

 is 1 1 ; of these six are on the metacarpals ; one, the " addigital," is on 

 the third digit; two, the "mid-digitals," are on the first phalaiix of 

 the second digit ; and two, the " pre-digitals," are on the next phalanx 

 of that digit ; the outer of the pre-digitals being the "remicle," which 

 is always rudimentary and sometimes obsolete. 



And now, having cleared the ground a little, let us resume. We 

 have seen that our bird does not belong to the Strigida, or VulturidcE, 

 or Fakonidce, or Alcida, or Pteroclida, and we have thus definitely 

 identified five families out of thirty-five, and have also discovered that 

 our specimen belongs to neither of the genera of two other families, 

 which can be separated out by their having only three toes, and those 

 united as far as the claws. 



Our next group consisted of the three-toed birds with the web 

 extending only as far as the second joint. There is only one family 

 answering this description, and that is the (Edicne- 

 mida, which has in our list but one genus, CEdicnemus, 

 and that with only one species. We are thus able to 

 identify the Stone Curlew by its foot alone. 



Our third group with three toes has its toes united 

 at the base, or practically anywhere below the second 

 joint ; and our iourth has the toes entirely free, 

 without any webs at all. We can make as short 

 work of the fourth as we did of the second. There is 

 only one family in the list with three toes unconnected 

 by a membrane, and that is the Turnicida, repre- 

 sented by the one genus Tu7nix^ and that by its one 

 species, known as the Andalusian Bush Quail, or 

 Hemipode, which is only admitted as a Britisher under protest. 



