OSTEOLOGY OF BIRDS 



197 



from hallux to fourth toe inclusive, while the ungual joints are in 

 each case strong and powerfully curved, and taken as a whole, al- 

 though offering nothing of particular note, the skeletal podal struc- 

 ture of G. bankiva unmistakably denotes the predominance of 

 its rasorial habits over any arboreal proclivities it may possess. 



So much for the skeleton of the species of Gallus, from which 

 during the long ages gone by, all of our domestic species have been 

 most undoubtedly derived, and that by the action of laws and 

 processes of which we today have some good strong inkling, but 

 of which we are by no means thoroughly informed. 



The description just given of the osteology of G . bankiva, 

 with the figures illustrating it, will very materially assist us to com- 

 prehend the nature or morphology of the skeleton in any of our 

 United States Gallinae, or indeed in the majority of those in any 

 other part of the world, for as I have before remarked, funda- 

 mentally, the same essential plan is repeated in the skeleton of any 

 one of the true galline types. 



For instance, all the main or salient skeletal characters of Gallus, 

 irrespective of the question of size, are to be seen in any of our 

 Perdicinae, or the Quail partridges. Take for example a skeleton 

 of C o 1 i n u s virginianus. 1 Skull [see pi. 2, fig. 13] , man- 

 dible, and hyoidean apparatus are all very chickenlike, as are the 

 ossifications of the organs of special sense. The Quail, however, 

 has the superior mandible relatively shorter, its anterior apex more 

 produced and decurved, and the narial apertures more circular. 

 The transverse craniofacial line or region is also decidedly more pit- 

 like; either pars plana ossifies rather better; the squamosal and post- 

 frontal processes are thoroughly united at their anterior ends, and 

 are then further produced as a sharp, laminated apophysis. The 

 vomer may or may not ossify in Colinus, and is invariably very 

 small when present. 



Passing to the sternum and the bones of the shoulder girdle, we 

 find an even more striking agreement in their general pattern, 

 though in Colinus the scapulae are remarkably slender and long, 

 while the delicate costal processes of its sternum are greatly pro- 

 duced. A few insignificant differences also characterize the re- 

 mainder of the skeletons in these two fowls, but substantially the 

 plan of structure is the same. Relatively, the pelvis of Colinus is 

 longer and narrower than it is in Gallus, and it is surprising how 



1 The specimen I have at hand is C. v. texanus from the Rio Grande valley, 

 collected for me in 1880. 



