Identifier: keytonorthameric01coue (find matches)
Title: Key to North American birds. Containing a concise account of every species of living and fossil bird at present known from the continent north of the Mexican and United States boundary, inclusive of Greenland and lower California, with which are incorporated General ornithology, an outline of the structure and classification of birds, and Field ornithology, a manual of collecting, preparing, and preserving birds
Year: 1890 (1890s)
Authors: Coues, Elliott, 1842-1899
Subjects: Birds -- North America Birds -- Collection and preservation
Publisher: Boston, D. Estes and Company

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/;, A, haemapophyses; As, bifidhaemal spine. Brawn by Dr. K. W. Sliufeldt, U. S. A.,after Owen. The Axial Skeleton (figs. 54, 5.5, 56) of a bird or any rertebrnted animal, that is, onehaving a back-bone, exhibits in cross-section two rings or hoops, one above and the otherbelow a central point, like the upper and lower loops of a figure 8- The u))per ring is theneural arch (Gr. vdpov^ neuron, a nerve), so called because such a cylinder encloses a sectionof the cerebro-spinal axis, or principal nervous system of a vertebrate (brain and spinal cord. 142 GENERAL ORNITHOLOGY. wh nee anse all the nerves of the body excepting those of the sympathetic nem.us system) cf th TnZ/l / / i^-- ^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^ly contains a section of the pnncipal blood-vessels and viscera- Fig. 55 shows such a section, made across thetUrac^c or chest-region of the trunk. Here the upper ring ,neural) is contracted, on ; surrounding the slender spinal cord, while the lower ring is expanded to enclose the heart and
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lungs. Such a section, made in the region of the skull, would show the reverse; the up,,crnng greatly inflated to contain the brain, the lower contracted and otherwise greatly mod Idinto bones of the jaws. Thus the trunk of a vertebrate is a double-barrelled tube ; er The.esolid bones are the centrum, or hodies of vertebra, in tlie trunk; and in tlie hrad cerfu,i THE ANATOMY OF BIRDS. —OSTEOLOGY. 143 boues which iu some respects correspond with the centrums of vertebrae. The entire chain orseries of vertebrae composes the back-bone or spinal column; with its connections (thorax andpelvis) and anterior continuation (skull) it is the axial skeleton. The skull is considered bysome competent anatomists to consist of modified vertebrae. The skuU-bones ha\-e certainlythe position and relations of parts of vertebrae; to a certain

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