OSTEOLOGY OF BIRDS 



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of the skulls of the series representing my tame turkeys, which 

 seems to present all the salient characters seen in the skull of M . 

 g. domestica [fig. 32, 35, 37]. It was also an adult male 

 specimen. 



Viewing these two skulls upon their superior aspects, as shown in 

 figures 31 and 32, we find that the form of the premaxillary hone is 

 essentially very much the same in both birds ; and, I fail to find any 

 distinctive constant differences between them. It will be noticed 

 that the backward-extending superomedian nasal process of the 

 bone in the adult retains the suture between the two premaxillaries 

 of embryonic life; its longitudinal division into two slips. Between 

 the posterior extremities of these, in all specimens that I have ex- 

 amined, both wild and tame, it is possible to discern the underlying 

 ethmoid (cth). Coming next to the nasal bones («), we find that 

 they also have much the same shape and relation in the two skulls 

 under consideration. I have always noticed, however, that in the 

 skulls of wild turkeys, the posterior borders of the nasals indis- 

 tinguishably fuse with the adjacent frontals, and in them this fronto- 

 nasal region is more concaved than it is in the skulls of the domestic 

 turkeys. There is one skull of a tame turkey in my series, and 

 but one, that shows this absorption of the frontonasal suture. But 

 this skull also exhibits other features that partake more or less of 

 the characteristics of the skull of a wild turkey. 



I am inclined to think that it will be found though, that the per- 

 sistency of this suture in the skull of adult tame turkeys, marks 

 one of those differences that will eventually become one of its estab- 

 lished distinctive characters. And here it will be as well to remark 

 that the fusing of those bones of the skull that commonly have the 

 sutures among them obliterated in adult life, takes place, as a rule, 

 at a much later date in domesticated turkeys, than it does in the 

 wild birds. It is not an uncommon thing to find the interfrontal 

 suture present in old barnyard gobblers. What I have said in re- 

 gard to the premaxillary and nasal bones, is well shown in figures 

 31 and 32 ; we may also see there the usual form assumed by the 

 lacrymal (/), which latter is a largely developed element of the 

 skull in all turkeys. In the vast majority of skulls of both species 

 this bone articulates with the external free edge of the posterior 

 moiety of the corresponding nasal ; it may, however, in either 

 species, slightly encroach upon the adjacent frontal bone. Its 

 horizontal portion seems to be longer and more pointed in wild 

 turkeys, than in the tame ones ; we will probably find numbers of ex- 

 ceptions to this rule, however, but a still more constant character Is 



