Furcula

“ Fungicolous: living in or on fungi.
Funicle: the joints between the scape and club in Funiculate antennae: a small cord: a slender stalk.
Funiculate: whip-like: long, slender, composed of many flexible joints.
Funicule: a small, cord-like structure; especially when sheathed.
Funiculus: the main tendon of abdomen: in Hymenoptera a slender ligament connecting the propodeum to petiole on its dorsal aspect.
Furca: a fork: the anal appendage used for leaping in Thysanura; see furcula: the forked ental processes of the sternum. ”

“ The size and shape of the perforations in the sternum, and the size and divergence of the arms of the furcula, differ. The oil-gland varies in development, and is sometimes quite aborted. The direction and length of certain feathers have been much modified, as in the hood of the Jacobin and the frill of the Turbit. The wing and tail feathers generally vary in {178}length together, but sometimes independently of each other and of the size of the body. The number and position of the tail-feathers vary to an unparalleled degree. ”

“ The whole foot, including the long scutellated metatarsus, is exceptionally stout, and the toes are padded beneath. The beak is short, broad, and depressed, with deeply split gape; the head is small, with large eyes; the neck very long; the wing- and drooping tail-feathers–the plumes of commerce–are large and soft, with broad equal vanes. The furcula and syringeal muscles are wanting, nor is there any aftershaft. ”

“ The furcula is Y-shaped, the aftershaft is very small, the down is uniform in both adults and young.
Cranes are inhabitants of morasses and plains, being especially fond of the neighbourhood of lagoons, tanks, and fields of corn or rice; yet they are also found in boggy openings in forests, on sandy flats, or even on the sea-shore. They are gregarious after the breeding season, when they often collect into flocks of immense size, which pass the night together and traverse vast distances in company. The northern species all migrate southwards in winter. ”

“ But the degree of reduction varies much, partly in consequence of the frequently deformed state of the sternum. In the Silk-fowl, which cannot fly, the crest is 34 per cent. less deep than what it ought to have been. This reduction of the crest in all the breeds probably accounts for the great variability, before referred to, in the curvature of the furcula, and in the shape of its sternal extremity. Medical men believe that the abnormal form of the spine so commonly observed in women of the higher ranks results from the attached muscles not being fully exercised. ”

“ We see the same result in the two protuberances which support the horns in the horned fowl, and in the flattened shape of the front of the skull in Hamburghs consequent on their flattened and broad "rose-combs." We know not in the least whether additional ribs, or the changed outline of the occipital foramen, or the changed form of the scapula, or of the extremity of the furcula, are in any way correlated with other structures, or have arisen from the changed conditions and habits of life to which our fowls have been subjected ”

“ The furcula often ossifies firmly with the anterior portion of the keel, and in Fregata, Didus and the Ratitae, the coracoids and scapulae are fused together.
Fig. 3.–Skeleton of the Limbs and Tail of a Carinate Bird. (The skeleton of the body is indicated by dotted lines.) F, digits; Fi, fibula; HW, carpus; MF, tarsometatarsus; MH, carpometacarpus; OA, humerus; OS, femur; Py, pygostyle; R, coracoid; Rd, ulna; Sch, scapula; St, sternum, with its keel (Cr) ; T, tibiotarsus; Ul, radius; Z, Z1, digits of foot. ”

“ The tongue is sagittate, the furcula U-shaped, the after-shaft rudimentary; the adults have no down. M. superba of New South Wales and South Queensland, some thirty-three inches long, is {492}dull brown, with a slaty tinge above, and more rufous throat, wings, and tail-coverts; while the outer rectrices exhibit regular notch-like transparent or blackish markings on the chestnut inner webs, caused by the absence of barbules. The naked orbits are bluish or lead-coloured. The female has a long, broad, normal tail, the median feathers exceeding the rest. ”

“ Zool. Soc. Lond. Part III. 1835, in which he points out many approximations in the generative and other systems of this animal to the organization of reptiles. ↑ In both these animals there is superadded to the ordinary type of bones in quadrupeds, an enlargement of the coracoid bone (c,) and a peculiar form of sternum, resembling the furcula of birds. In Pl. 12, Fig. 1, a. represents the peculiar sternum or furcula; b. b. the clavicles; c. c. the coracoid bones; d. d. the scapula; e. e. the humeri; f. g. ”

“ The Order Anseriformes consists of the Sub-Orders Palamedeae and Anseres, each containing a single Family, Palamedeidae and Anatidae respectively. Lying between the Ciconiiformes and the Falconiformes, the connexion of this group with the former is much the most easily recognised, as it shows decided affinities to the Phoenicopteri, while between the Anseres and the Birds of Prey there occurs one of those gaps common to every linear system of classification. All the members agree in having the furcula U-shaped and the nostrils pervious. ”

“ Its hinder extremity never touches the ground, but is furnished with two tubes, through which the insect ejects a thin liquor at its pursuers. When near the change into the pupa state, however, the tubes dry up, and it loses this faculty. More male than female moths are to be found, which is contrary to the general rule.
42 Cerura furcula.—The kitten.
43 Lasiocampa quercus.—The Eggar has been known to remain seven years in the chrysalis state.
44 Zygæna genus.
45 Noctua oblonga.
46 Noctua obscura. ”

“ The median and two lateral eyes often exist together, as in Eosphora; and sometimes additional paired eyes exist. In Furcularia longiseta, var. grandis a pair of pigment spots (eyes?) occurs at the hinder end of the body just in front of the foot.
The active Ploima show a spontaneity of movement and marked power of avoiding obstacles, etc. This is still more marked in the very active Pedalion, which, as Rousselet notes, clearly avoids capture by the dropping tube, aided by its sense of sight, as he suggests, or by the tactile or olfactory powers of the antennae. ”

“ Fuchsias, origin of, i. 364; bud-variation in, i. 382. Fuchsia coccinea and fulgens, twin seed produced by crossing, i. 391. Fuegians, their superstition about killing young water-fowl, i. 310; selection of dogs by the, ii. 207; their comparative estimation of dogs and old women, ii. 215; their power of distant vision, ii. 223. Fungi, parasitic, ii. 284-285. Furcula, characters and variations of the, in pigeons, i. 167; alteration of, by disuse, in pigeons, i. 175; characters of, in fowls, i. 268. Fusion of homologous parts, ii. 393. Gait, inheritance of peculiarities of, ii. 6. ”

“ Figure 154.—Russula furcata. Two-thirds natural size. Caps greenish-umber to reddish.
Furca, a fork, so called from the forking of the gills. This is not peculiar, however, to this species. The pileus is two to three inches broad; greenish, usually greenish-umber, sometimes reddish; fleshy; compact; nearly round, then expanded, depressed in the center; even; smooth; often sprinkled with a silky luster, pellicle separable, margin at first inflexed, then expanded, always even, sometimes turned upward. The flesh is firm, white, dry, somewhat cheesy. ”

“ The forks play the part of an elastic spring, whose office it is to prevent the wings from coming toward each other during contraction of the depressor muscles. The conformation of this bone is, therefore, like the sternum, related to the extent and power of flight; and for this reason it is that, in swift flyers, the two branches of the furculum are thick, solid, widely separated, and curved like a U; while in those that fly heavily and with difficulty, these branches are thin and weak, and join at an acute angle. ”

“ The males of Onitis furcifer (Fig. 21) , and of some other species of the genus, are furnished with singular projections on their anterior femora, and with a great fork or pair of horns on the lower surface of the thorax. Judging from other insects, these may aid the male in clinging to the female. Although the males have not even a trace of a horn on the upper surface of the body, yet the females plainly exhibit a rudiment of a single horn on the head (Fig. 22, a) , and of a crest (b) on the thorax. ”

“ This species, then, may in all probability be rejected as one of the primitive stocks of the domestic fowl.
Java and the islands eastward as far as Flores are inhabited by G. varius (or furcatus) , which differs in so many characters—green plumage, unserrated comb, and single median wattle—that no one supposes it to have been the parent of any one of our breeds; yet, as I am informed by Mr. Crawfurd, [377] hybrids are commonly raised between the male G. varius and the common hen, and are kept for their great beauty, but are invariably sterile ”

“ The wings of the moth were removed, and I was not entomologist enough to name the species, but I observed that the birds hunted for their prey among the lower part of the stems of the furze. During the summer Dartford Warblers may generally be found in most of the large patches of furze that are scattered over the South Downs, although, being remarkably shy, they are liable to escape observation, for on the slightest sign of danger they immediately seek the shelter of the bushes. In the winter they seem to be of a roving disposition. ”

“ The furca is, as a rule, a powerful motor-organ, and has its laminae edged with strong teeth (ungues) or setae or both. The young, though born with valves, have at first a nauplian body, and pass through various stages to maturity.
Brady and Norman, in their Monograph of the Ostracoda of the North Atlantic and North-Western Europe (1889) , give a bibliography of 125 titles, and in the second part (1896) they give 55 more. The lists are not meant to be exhaustive, any more than G.W. Müller’s literature list of 125 titles in 1894. ”

“ This fine bird, like the rest of the true Platycerci, is entirely destitute of the os furcatum; hence, like them, its powers of flight are very limited; on the other hand it runs quickly over the surface of the ground, as may be seen by all who have observed the bird in a cage, to which it is often consigned and sent to this country as an ornament for the aviary, which it graces, both by its large size and the richly contrasted colouring of its plumage. ”

“ As development proceeds, the body of the nauplius elongates, and indications of segmentation begin to appear in its posterior part. At successive moults the somites increase in number, new somites being added behind those already differentiated, from a formative zone in front of the telsonic region. Very commonly the posterior end of the body becomes forked, two processes growing out at the sides of the anus and often persisting in the adult as the “caudal furca.” ”

“ The furrier has cause to dread the ravages of Tinea Pellionella, which feeds on feathers and fur, and is no respecter of priceless sables and ermine. This insect makes its case with atoms of fur cut to the same length, and it works so insidiously that there is no outward sign of its evil doings until little tufts of fur begin to fall off, and then it is too late to save our valued garments. They are sure, sooner or later, to prove hopelessly destroyed. ”

“ The billow barks or bellows in their hollow bowels, in their deep yawning jaws; then, after they have engulfed it, they vomit it forth in jets and foam against the lofty shining waves that forever return to the assault. Shells and polished pebbles are incrusted upon their head. Here furzes have rooted their patient stems and the confusion of their thorns; this hairy mantle is the only one capable of clinging to their flanks, and of standing out against the spray of the sea. ”

“ The fusca has the longest arms, and makes use of the most curious manœuvres to seize its prey. They are best viewed in a glass seven or eight inches deep, when their arms commonly hang down to the bottom. When this or any other kind is hungry, it spreads its arms in a kind of circle to a considerable extent, inclosing in this, as in a net, every insect which has the misfortune to come within the circumference. ”

“ The fur-seal spends a great deal of time, both at sea and on land, in scratching its hide; for it is annoyed by a species of louse, a pediculus, to just about the same degree and in the same manner that our dogs are by fleas. To scratch, it sits upon its haunches, and scrapes away with the toe-nails of first one and then the other of its hind flippers, by which action it reaches readily all portions of its head, neck, chest and shoulders, and with either one or the other of its fore flippers it rubs down its spinal region back of the shoulders to the tail. ”

“ The absolute length of the under-fur differs in the various species. Judging from the old and young specimens of A. nigrescens, the hairs seem to be longer, both absolutely and relatively to the under-fur, in the young than in the adult animals. The hairs of the Hair-Seals are shorter, flat, channelled above, and gradually tapering from the base to the tip, merely contracted at the insertion into the skin. The breadth of the hairs seems to vary in the different species; and in the younger specimens there are to be observed some soft hairs like the under-fur of the Fur-Seals. ”

“ Female examples of the worm live in the lungs of the frog. Their young, as embryos, pass into the damp earth and mud, where they grow up into sexually-mature forms different from the parent worms found in the frog. These free adult worms, male and female, produce rhabditiform embryos which present characters of their own and attain a certain stage of growth. At this stage they are conveyed into the lungs of the frog where they arrive at sexual maturity. ”