Seven is the normal number of true ribs, but in two skeletons of the Sultan
fowl (in which the fourteenth cervical vertebra was not furnished with
little ribs) there were eight pairs; the eighth pair seemed to be developed
on a vertebra corresponding with the first lumbar in G. bankiva; the
sternal portion of both the seventh and eighth ribs did not reach the
sternum. In four skeletons in which ribs were developed on the fourteenth
cervical vertebra, there were, when these cervical ribs are included, eight
pairs; but in one Game cock, in which the fourteenth cervical was furnished
with ribs, there were only six pairs of true dorsal ribs; the sixth pair in
this case did not have processes, and thus resembled the seventh pair in
other skeletons; in this Game cock, as far as could be judged from the
appearance of the lumbar vertebrae, a whole dorsal vertebra with its ribs
was missing. We thus see that the ribs (whether or not the little pair
attached to the fourteenth cervical vertebra be counted) vary from six to
eight pair. The sixth pair is frequently not furnished with processes. The
sternal portion of the seventh pair is extremely broad in Cochins, and is
completely ossified. As previously stated, it is scarcely possible to count
the lumbo-sacral vertebrae; but they certainly do not correspond in shape
or number in the several skeletons. The caudal vertebrae are closely
similar in all the skeletons, the only difference being whether or not the
basal one is anchylosed to the pelvis; they hardly vary even in length, not
being shorter in Cochins, with their short tail-feathers, than in other
breeds; in a Spanish cock, however, the caudal vertebrae were a little
elongated. In three rumpless fowls the caudal vertebrae were few in number,
and anchylosed together into a misformed mass.
In the individual vertebrae the differences in structure are very slight.
In the atlas the cavity for the occipital condyle is either ossified into a
ring, or is, as in Bankiva, open on its upper margin. The upper arc of the
spinal canal is a little more arched in Cochins, in conformity with
the shape of the occipital foramen, than in G. bankiva. In several
skeletons a difference, but not of much importance, may be observed, which
commences at the fourth cervical vertebra, and is greatest at about the
sixth, seventh, or eighth vertebra; this consists in the haemal descending
processes being united to the body of the vertebra by a sort of buttress.
This structure may be observed in Cochins, Polish, some Hamburghs, and
probably other breeds; but is absent, or barely developed, in Game,
Dorking, Spanish, Bantam, and several other breeds examined by me. On the
dorsal surface of the sixth cervical vertebra in Cochins three prominent
points are more strongly developed than in the corresponding vertebra of
the Game fowl or G. bankiva.
PELVIS.
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