V U, Chap. VII. OSTEOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES. 269 



Spanish, Polish, Burmese Bantam, Frizzled Indian, and black-boned Silk 

 fowls ; and it was truly surprising to see how absolutely every process, 

 articulation, and pore agreed, though the bones differed greatly in size. 

 The agreement is far more absolute than in other parts of the skeleton. 

 In stating this, I do not refer to the relative thickness and length of the 

 several bones; for the tarsi varied considerably in both these respects. 

 But the other limb-bones varied little even in relative length. 



Finally, gl have not examined a sufficient number of skele- 

 tons to say whether any of the foregoing differences, except in 

 the skull, are characteristic of the several breeds. Apparently 

 some differences are more common in certain breeds than in 

 others,— as an additional rib to the fourteenth cervical vertebra 

 in Hamburghs and Games, and the breadth of the end of the 

 pubic bone in Cochins. Both skeletons of the Sultan fowl had 

 eight dorsal vertebrae, and the end of the scapula in both was 

 somewhat attenuated. In the skull, the deep medial furrow in 

 the frontal bones and the vertically elongated occipital foramen 

 seem to be characteristic of Cochins ; as in the great breadth of 

 the frontal bones in Dorkings ; the separation and open spaces 

 between the tips of the ascending branches of the premaxillaries 

 and nasal bones, as well as the front part of the skull being but 

 little depressed, characterise Hamburghs ; the globular shape 

 of the posterior part of the skull seems to be characteristic of 

 laced Bantams ; and lastly, the protuberance of the skull with 

 the ascending branches of the premaxillaries partially aborted, 

 together with the other differences before specified, are eminently 

 characteristic of Polish and other Crested fowls. 



But the most striking result of our examination of the skele- 

 ton is the great variability of all the bones except those of the 

 extremities. To a certain extent we can understand why 

 the skeleton fluctuates so much in structure ; fowls have been 

 exposed to unnatural conditions of life, and their whole organi- 

 sation has thus been rendered variable ; but the breeder is quite 

 indifferent to, and never intentionally selects, any modifications 

 m the skeleton. External characters, if not attended to by 

 man,— such as the number of the tail and wing feathers and 

 their relative lengths, which in wild birds are generally constant 

 points,— fluctuate in our domestic fowls in the same manner as 

 the several parts of the skeleton. An additional toe is a " point " 

 m Dorkings, and has become a fixed character, but is variable in 



