Gallus Bankiva of India. 31 
chickens when alarmed thought little of springing from 
the ground together, and taking a flight of some five or six 
hundred yards ; the character of the flight being much as 
Wwe see among quails. And if I may be allowed here a still 
greater digression, I may add that I once saw a number, 
some dozen or more, tame turkeys fly together over a half 
mile, and light upon the very tops of some tall hickory 
trees on the skirts of a forest. They had been suddenly 
alarmed by a firearm’s discharge ; and yet these birds had 
been notorious for several years as being more than clumsy 
flyers, a fact that had been noted as they went to roost at 
night. These, however, are simply cases wherein sudden 
fright seems to stimulate the long latent power, which 
otherwise the past ages of disuse and inheritance are slowly 
but permanently abrogating. 
The Pelvic Limb.—Much that I have hinted at in the 
foregoing paragraphs with respect to the skeleton of the 
arm, applies with equal force to the leg ; though in domes- 
tic chickens there is every reason to believe that this latter 
part of the skeleton will tend in time to rather become 
stronger than otherwise, from greater use. 
The wild cock G. bankivu has a femur of a form and 
size as we have represented it in two views in Figures 21 
and 22. It will be seen that the trochanterian crest is very 
prominent, and inclined to arch over the summit of the 
bone. Some semblance of a neck supports the ‘‘ caput 
femoris,” which latter is but feebly marked, at the usual 
site, by a pitlet for the ligamentum teres. Adown the 
shaft we note the usual muscular lines, and this part of the 
femur is much bowed to the front, and for its middle third, 
at least, is cylindrical in form. The external condyle is the 
larger, and situated the lower on the shaft, being cleft as 
usual posteriorly, to admit in articulation the head of the 
fibula. The femur, as in the case with all the other bones 
of the pelvic limb of this bird, is non-pneumatic. 
A sizable, transversely elongated patella is present 
(Fig. 29). 
Tibio-tarsus has its cnemial crest but slightly elevated 
above its summit, while the pro. and ectocnemial processes 
are low, twisted to the outer aspect, and soon merge into 
