+--------------------+-----------------+-------------------+-----------+ | | Weight of Femur,| Weight of | | | Name of Breed. | Tibia, and | Humerus, Radius, | | | | Metatarsus | and Metacarpus | Or as | +--------------------+-----------------+-------------------+-----------+ | | Grains. | Grains. | | |Wild mallard | 54 | 97 | 100 : 179 | |Aylesbury | 164 | 204 | 100 : 124 | |Hooked-bill | 107 | 160 | 100 : 149 | |Tufted (Dutch) | 111 | 148 | 100 : 133 | |Penguin | 75 | 90.5 | 100 : 120 | |Labrador | 141 | 165 | 100 : 117 | |Call | 57 | 93 | 100 : 163 | +--------------------+-----------------+-------------------+-----------+ | |Weight of all the| Weight of all the | | | | Bones of the | Bones of the | | | | Leg and Foot. | Wing. | | | +-----------------+-------------------+ | | | Grains. | Grains. | | |Wild duck | | | | |(another specimen) | 66 | 115 | 100 : 173 | |Common domestic duck| 127 | 158 | 100 : 124 | +--------------------+-----------------+-------------------+-----------+ In these domesticated birds, the considerably lessened weight of the bones of the wing (_i.e._ on an average, twenty-five per cent. of their proper proportional weight), as well as their slightly lessened length, relatively to the leg-bones, might follow, not from any actual decrease in the wing-bones, but from the increased weight and length of the bones of the legs. The first of the two tables on the next page shows that the leg-bones relatively to the weight of the entire skeleton have really increased in weight; but the second table shows that according to the same standard the wing-bones have also really decreased in weight; so that the relative disproportion shown in the foregoing tables between the wing and leg bones, in comparison with those of the wild duck, is partly due to the increase in weight and length of the leg-bones, and partly to the decrease in weight and length of the wing-bones.