102 THE WILD TURKEY AND ITS HUNTING 



The sixteenth vertebra supports a pair of free 

 ribs that fail to meet the sternum, there being no 

 costal ribs for them. They bear uncinate pro- 

 cesses. 



Next we find four pairs of ribs that articulate 

 with haemapophyses, and through them with the 

 sternum. There are two free vertebrae between 

 the consolidated dorsal ones and the pelvis; and 

 the pelvis bears a pair of free ribs, the costal ribs 

 of which articulate by their anterior ends with 

 the posterior border of the pair of costal ribs in 

 front of them. 



A kind of long abutment exists at the middle 

 point on each, there to accommodate the articu- 

 lation. There are six free tail vertebrae plus a 

 long pointed pygostyle. The os furcula is rather 

 slender, being of a typical V-shaped pattern, 

 with a small and straight hypocleidium. With 

 a form much as we find it in the fowl, the pelvis 

 is characterized by not having the ilia meet the 

 sacral crista in front. The prepubis is short and 

 stumpy. The external pair of xiphoidal pro- 

 cesses of the sternum are peculiar in that their 

 posterior ends are strongly bifurcated. 



