I have measured the length of the scapula in nine different large and
small-sized breeds, and in all the scapula is proportionally shorter
(taking the same standard as before) than in the wild rock-pigeon. The
reduction in length on an average is very nearly one-fifth of an inch,
or about one-ninth of the length of the scapula in the rock-pigeon.
The arms of the furcula in all the specimens which I compared, diverged
less, proportionally with the size of body, than in the rock-pigeon;
and the whole furculum was proportionally shorter. Thus in a Runt,
which measured from tip to tip of wings 38½ inches, the furculum was
only a very little longer (with the arms hardly more divergent) than in
a rock-pigeon which measured from tip to tip 26½ inches. In a Barb,
which in all its measurements was a little larger than the same
rock-pigeon, the furculum was a quarter of an inch shorter. In a
Pouter, the furculum had not been lengthened proportionally with the
increased length of the body. In a Short-faced Tumbler, which measured
from tip to tip of wings 24 inches, therefore only 2½ inches less than
the rock-pigeon, the furculum was barely two-thirds of the length of
that of the rock-pigeon.
We thus clearly see that the sternum, scapula, and furculum are all
reduced in proportional length; but when we turn to the wings we
find what at first appears a wholly different and unexpected
result. I may here remark that I have not picked out specimens, but
have used every measurement made by me. Taking the length from the
base of beak to the end of the tail as the standard of comparison,
I find that, out of thirty-five birds of various breeds,
twenty-five have wings of greater, and ten have them of less
proportional length, than in the rock-pigeon. But from the
frequently correlated length of the tail and wing-feathers, it is
better to take as the standard of comparison the length from the
base of the beak to the oil-gland; and by this standard, out of
twenty-six of the same birds which had been thus measured,
twenty-one had wings too long, and only five had them too short. In
the twenty-one birds the wings exceeded in length those of the
rock-pigeon, on an average, by 1-1/3 inch; whilst in the five birds
they were less in length by only ·8 of an inch. As I was much
surprised that the wings of closely confined birds should thus so
frequently have been increased in length, it occurred to me that it
might be solely due to the greater length of the wing-feathers; for
this certainly is the case with the Jacobin, which has wings of
unusual length. As in almost every case I had measured the folded
wings, I subtracted the length of this terminal part from that of
the expanded wings, and thus I obtained, with a moderate degree of
accuracy, the length of the wings from the ends of the two radii,
answering from wrist to wrist in our arms. The wings, thus measured
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