266 



FOWLS. 



Chap. VII. 



tuberance in the skull. I may add that I have seen a similar fleshy or 

 fibrous mass beneath the tuft of feathers on the head of the Tufted duck ; and 

 in this case there was no actual protuberance in the skull, but it had 

 become a little more globular. Lastly, when we come to fowls with a 

 largely developed crest, the skull becomes largely protuberant and is per- 

 forated by a multitude of irregular open spaces. The close relation between 

 the crest and the size of the bony protuberance is shown in another way ; 

 for Mr. Tegetmeier informs me that if chickens lately hatched be selected 

 with a large bony protuberance, when adult they will have a large crest. 

 There can be no doubt that in former times the breeder of Polish fowls 

 attended solely to the crest, and not to the skull ; nevertheless, by increasing 

 the crest, in which he has wonderfully succeeded, he has unintentionally 

 made the skull protuberant to an astonishing degree ; and through correla- 

 tion of growth, he has at the same time affected the form and relative con- 

 nexion of the premaxillary and nasal bones, the shape of the orifice of the 

 nose, the breadth of the frontal bones, the shape of the post-lateral pro- 

 cesses of the frontal and squamosal bones, the direction of the axis of 

 the bony cavity of the ear, and lastly the internal configuration of the 

 whole skull together with the shape of the brain. 



Vertebrae. — In O. lanhiva there are fourteen cervical, seven dorsal with 

 ribs, apparently fifteen lumbar and sacral, and six caudal vertebrae ; 71 but 

 the lumbar and sacral are so much anchylosed that I am not sure of 

 their number, and this makes the comparison of the total number of ver- 

 tebrae in the several breeds difficult. I have spoken of six caudal vertebrae, 

 because the basal one is almost completely anchylosed with the pelvis ; 

 but if we consider the number as seven, the caudal vertebrae agree in all 

 the skeletons. The cervical vertebrae are, as just stated, in appearance 

 fourteen ; but out of twenty-three skeletons in a fit state for examination, 

 in five of them, namely, in two Games, in two pencilled Hamburghs, and in 

 a Polish, the fourteenth vertebra bore ribs, which, though small, were per- 

 fectly developed with a double articulation. The presence of these little 

 ribs cannot be considered as a fact of much importance, for all the cervical 

 vertebrae bear representatives of ribs ; but their development in the four- 

 teenth vertebra reduces the size of the passages in the transverse pro- 

 cesses, and makes this vertebra exactly like the first dorsal vertebra. The 

 addition of these little ribs does not affect the fourteenth cervical alone, 

 for properly the ribs of the first true dorsal vertebra are destitute of pro- 

 cesses ; but in some of the skeletons in which the fourteenth cervical bore 

 little ribs, the first pair of true ribs had well-developed processes. When 

 we know that the sparrow has only nine, and the swan twenty-three 

 cervical vertebrae, 72 we need feel no surprise at the number of the cervical 

 vertebrae in the fowl being, as it appears, variable. 



There are seven dorsal vertebrae bearing ribs ; the first dorsal is never 



itif 



71 It appears that I have not correctly 

 designated the several groups of verte- 

 brae, for a great authority, Mr. W. K. 

 Parker (' Transact. Zoolog. Soc.,' vol. v. 

 p. 198), specifies 16 cervical, 4 dorsal, 



15 lumbar, and 6 caudal vertebras in 

 this genus. But I have used the same 

 terms in all the following descriptions. 

 72 Macgillivray, ' British Birds,' vol. 

 i. p. 25. 



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forarxie 





