14 Osteology of Porzand Carolina. 
about it ; it makes up 2.1 cms. of the length of the pinion 
given above. 
Pollex digit terminates in a free claw, which pierces the 
common integuments to appear externally, where it is en- 
cased by a sheath of horn like the ungual phalanges of 
pes. 
No such appendage is to be found at the last joint of 
index digit, while the proximal joint of this finger has its 
expanded portion rather narrow and composed of one un- 
broken piece of bone. Mid-metacarpal supports its usual 
small finger-joint. 
In the pelvic extremity we have a femur 3.85, a tibio- 
tarsus of 6, a tarsometatarsus of 3.8, and the middle toe of 
pes, 4.65 centimetres long, 
The femur develops a trochanterian ridge that rears 
above the articular surface of the summit; the femoral 
head, however, is small, though prominent, and has a well 
defined pitlet for the insertion of the round ligament, 
not diffuse as it is in some birds. 
Its shaft is somewhat slender, slightly bowed to the front 
along its continuity, terminating in the usual condylar 
prominences below. Of these, the inner one is the rather 
more manifest in front, but the lowest point of either 
seems to lie in the same horizontal plane. The channel 
separating them anteriorly subsides on the shaft opposite 
their own endings. 
A patella does not develop in Porzana carolina, its 
substitute being seen in a thick, cartilaginous deposit in the 
tendon, at its usual site. 
In the tzbzo-tarsus, the cnemial crest is produced well 
above the articular summit of the bone, and the two ridges 
which embellish its anterior portion below the procnemial 
ridge, is far the more conspicuous, jutting out directly to 
the front, but soon terminating abruptly below. The ecto- 
cnemial ridge is smaller, is in a plane parallel to the fibular 
ridge, and terminates in a decurved process or hook op- 
posite, and in front of the head of the fibula. 
As for the shaft, we find it nearly straight, smooth, but 
inclined to become somewhat four-sided immediately before 
expanding into its condylar-distal extremity. This part 
exhibits the usual longitudinal groove in front, crossed by 
the bridge of bone for the extensor tendons. The inter- 
condylar notch is very deep in front, broad, and rather 
shallow behind. And of the two condyles the outside one 
is considerably the broader and larger, while but little 
