OSTEOLOGY OF BIRDS 



181 



seen to be a Y-shaped bone, with a shallow symphysis, and all its 

 many separate elements here thoroughly fused in the adult Jungle 

 fowl. Lacking entirely a ramal vacuity, it also develops the badge 

 of its tribe in the backward-projecting posterior articular process 

 [p. ap.], so prominent in all gallinaceous species. 



More delicately constructed, yet agreeing in all essential particu- 

 lars, the " hyoid arches " of this cock are much as we find them in 

 the ruler of the dunghill, our modern rooster, as may be seen by 

 inspecting my drawing of them in figure 6; and Parker, through 

 his many clear descriptions, and more than instructive figures, has 

 so impressed the several parts, and the development of these 

 " arches " upon the minds of all who have ever looked into such 

 subjects, that further description here, beyond my drawing, would 

 indeed be superfluous. In the hen of G . b a n k i v a , they agree 

 with the male bird, except as I have already indicated, in the point 

 of size, being proportionately smaller. 



I predict that if complete measurements of the brain case and 

 the size of the brain are ever made for a series of adult males of 

 the wild G . b a n k i v a , and compared with similar data ob- 

 tained from a like series of domestic fowls of corresponding general 

 proportions, that the average size of the brain in the former will 

 be greater than the average size of the brain in the latter, all else 

 being equal. From this I mean to say that I firmly believe that our 

 domesticated varieties of fowls have deteriorated mentally since 

 the days they were first domesticated by man; and now, in this par- 

 ticular, the wild species are their peers. 



Comparing next the skull of our male and female G . b a n k i v a 

 by measurement, and using centimeters and their fractions as our 

 scale, we note some of the following differences : 



DISTANCES BETWEEN CERTAIN POINTS ON THE SKULL 





MALE 



FEMALE 



Greatest median longitudinal length 



6 



X 



5 



5 



Greatest width, from tip of one sphenotic process to the other on opposite 













2 



6 



2 



4 



Greatest hight, vertex to mid point basitemporal area 



2 





2 



I 





4 



I 



4 



4 



Distance between apexes of posterior articular processes of mandibles . . 



2 



7 



2 



2 





O 



5 



O 



s 



Distance between the quadrates 



I 



4 5 



I 



3 



Remainder of the skeleton. Both the cock and the hen of my 

 specimens of G. bankiva possess 14 vertebrae in the cervical 



