The Sympathetic System forms a chain on either side of the vertebral column. In the region of the neck lateral strands pass through the transverse canal of the cervical vertebrae; but from the thoracic region onwards, where the cardiac branch to the heart is given off, each strand is double and the basal ganglia are successively connected with the next by a branch which runs ventrally over the capitulum of the rib, and by another which passes directly through the foramen or space formed between capitulum and tuberculum. In the pelvic region, from about the level of the posterior end of the ischiadic plexus, the strand of each side becomes single again, passing ventrally over the transverse processes. Lastly, towards the caudal region the right and left strands approach and anastomose, eventually coalescing in the mid line.
Literature.—A. Bumm, “Das Grosshirn der Vögel,” Zeitschr. wiss. Zool., 38, 1883, pp. 430-466, pls. 24-25; F. Leuret and P. Gratiolet, Anatomie comparée du système nerveux (Paris, 1839-1857), with atlas; A. Meckel, “Anatomie des Gehirns der Vögel,” in Meckel’s Archiv f. Physiol. vol. ii.; H. F. Osborn, “The Origin of the Corpus Callosum, a contribution upon the Cerebral Commissures of the Vertebrata,” Morphol. Jahrbuch, 1886, xii. pp. 223-251, pls. 13-14; M. A. Schulgin, “Lobi optici der Vögel,” Zool. Anzeig. iv. pp. 277 and 303; E. R. A. Serres, Anatomie comparée du cerveau (Paris, 1824, 4 pls.); L. Stieda, “Studien über das centrale Nervensystem der Vögel und Säugethiere,” Zeitschr. wiss. Zool. xix., 1869, pp. 1-92, pls.; J. Swan, Illustrations of the Comparative Anatomy of the Nervous System (London, 1835, 4to, with plates).
Concerning the spinal nerves and their plexus: H. v. Jhering, Das peripherische Nervensystem der Wirbeltiere (Leipzig, 1871); W. A. Haswell, “Notes on the Anatomy of Birds,” Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. iii., 1879; M. Fürbringer, “Zur Lehre von den Umbildungen der Nervenplexus,” Morph. Jahrb. v., 1879, p. 358.
4. Organs of Sense.
The Eye is essentially reptilian, but in sharpness of vision, power and quickness of accommodation it surpasses that of the mammals. The eyeball, instead of being globular, resembles rather the tube of a short and thick opera-glass.
The anterior half of the sclerotic is composed of a ring of some ten to seventeen cartilaginous or bony scales which partly overlap each other. Another cartilage or ossification, the posterior sclerotic ring, occurs within the walls of the posterior portion of the cup, and surrounds, especially in the Pici and in the Passeres, the entrance of the optic nerve. The iris is in most young birds at first brown or dull-coloured, but with maturity attains often very bright tints which add considerably to the charm of the bird; sexual dimorphism is in this respect of common occurrence. The iris contains a sphincter and a dilator muscle; the former, supplied by branches from the oculomotorius nerve, is under control of the will, whilst the dilator fibres belong to the sympathetic system. When fully dilated, the pupil is round in all birds; when contracted it is usually round, rarely oval as in the fowl. From near the entrance of the optic nerve, through the original choroidal fissure, arises the much-folded pecten, deeply pigmented and very vascular, far into the vitreous humour. The number of its folds varies considerably, from three in Caprimulgus to nearly thirty in crow (Corvus). Apteryx, which since Owen has generally been stated to be devoid of such an organ, likewise possesses a pecten; its base is, however, trumpet-shaped, covers almost the whole of the optic disk, and extends nearly to the lens in the shape of a thick, densely pigmented cone, without any plications, resembling in these respects the pecten of many Lacertilia (see G. L. Johnson, Phil. Trans., 1901, p. 54). In the retina the cones prevail in numbers over the rods as in the mammals, and their tips contain, as in other Sauropsida, coloured drops of oil, mostly red or yellow. Near the posterior pole of the fundus, but somewhat excentrically placed towards the temporal or outer side, is the fovea centralis, a slight depression in the retina, composed almost entirely of cones, the spot of most acute vision. Many birds possess besides this temporal fovea a second fovea nearer the nasal side. It is supposed that the latter serves monocular, the other the binocular vision, most birds being able to converge their eyes upon one spot. Consequently the whole field of vision of these birds possesses three points where vision is most acute. It may here be remembered that of the mammalia man and monkeys alone are capable of convergence, and have a circumscribed macular area.
Of the outer eyelids, the lower alone is movable in most birds, as in reptiles, and it frequently contains a rather large saucer-shaped cartilage, the tarsus palpebralis. The margins of the lids are sometimes furnished with eyelashes, e.g. in the ostrich and in the Amazon parrots, which are vestigial feathers without barbs. During the embryonic stage the lids are fused together, and either become separated shortly before the bird is hatched, as is the case with most Nidifugae, or else the blind condition prevails for some time, in the young Nidicolae. All birds have, like most reptiles, a well-developed third lid or “nictitating membrane,” which moves from the inner canthus obliquely upwards and backwards over the cornea. The moving mechanism is a further and much higher development of that which prevails in reptiles, there being two muscles completely separate from each other. Both are supplied by the abducens nerve, together with the rectus externus muscle. One, the quadratus or bursalis muscle, arises from the hinder surface of the eyeball, and forms with its narrow margin, which is directed towards the optic nerve, a pulley for the long tendon of the pyramidalis muscle. This arises from the nasal surface of the ball, and its tendon passes into the somewhat imperfectly transparent nictitating membrane. The quadrate muscle adjusts the motion, and prevents pressure upon the optic nerve; during the state of relaxation of both muscles the nictitans withdraws through its own elasticity.
See R. Leuckart in Graefe and Saemisch’s Handbuch d. Ophthalmologie (Leipzig, 1876, vol. i. chap. 7); H. Müller, Gesammelte Schriften (Otto Becker, Leipzig, 1872), and Arch. f. Ophthalmol. iii.; Ch. Rouget, “Recherches anatomiques et physiologiques sur les appareils érectiles,” “Appareil de l’adaptation de l’œil” . . . Compt. Rend. (Paris, xlii., 1856, pp. 937-941); M. Schultze, art. “Retina,” in Stricker’s Handbuch der Gewebelehre, 1871, vol. ii.; J. R. Slonaker, “Comp. Study of the Area of Acute Vision in Vertebrates,” Journ. Morph., 1897.
Ear.—The outer opening of the ear is, with rare exceptions, concealed by feathers, which are often rather stiff, or modified into bristles. There is no other protection, but slight, imperfectly movable folds of skin arise from the outer rim. The largest ear-opening is met with in the owls, with correspondingly larger folds of skin, the function of which is less that of protection than, probably, the catching of sound. In many owls the right and left ears are asymmetrical, and this asymmetry affects the whole of the temporal region, all the bones which surround the outer and middle ear, notably the squamosal and the quadrate, so that the skull becomes lopsided, one ear being turned obliquely down, the other upwards. (For, detail see Collett, Christiania Vidensk. Forhandl., 1881, No. 3.)
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| Fig. 16.—Auditory “chain” of Chicken. Lateral and basal views. (After W. K. Parker). |
The middle ear communicates with the mouth by the Eustachian tubes, which pass between the basisphenoid and basioccipital bones, and unite upon the ventral side of the sphenoid, a little behind its articulation with the pterygoids, where they open into the mouth cavity by a short membranous duct. The columellar apparatus, or auditory chain of ossicles (fig. 16), extending between the fenestra ovalis and the tympanic membrane or drum, consists of (1) the long and slender columella, a straight, ossified rod which fits with a disk into the fenestra ovalis; it is homologous with the stapes (m.st.), although not stirrup-shaped; (2) the extracolumellar mass. This is chiefly cartilaginous and sends out three processes: the dorsal (s.st.) is attached to the upper wall of the drum cavity; the outermost (e.st.) is fastened on to the middle of the drum membrane; the third, ventral or infracolumellar process (i.st.) is directed downwards and tapers out into a thin, partly cartilaginous, strand, which originally extended to the inner corner of the articular portion of the mandible, but on its long way comes to grief, being squeezed in between the pterygoid and quadrate. This long downward process being homologous with an almost exactly identical arrangement in the crocodile, and with the processus folii of the mammalian malleus, it follows that the whole extracolumellar mass, that between stapes and drum, is equivalent to incus and malleus of the mammalia. There is, in birds, no annulus tympanicus. Birds possess an ear-muscle which at least acts as a tensor tympani; it arises near the occipital condyle, passes through a hole into the tympanic cavity, and its tendon is, in various ways, attached to the inside of the membrane and the neighbouring extracolumellar processes.
As regards the inner ear, the endolymphatic duct ends in a closed saccus, imbedded in the dura mater of the cranial cavity. The apex of the cochlea is turned towards, and almost reaches the anterior wall of the occipital condyle; at most it makes but half a twist or turn; it possesses both Reissner’s membrane and the organ of Corti. Although the scala tympani is so rudimentary, not reaching a higher level than in most of the reptiles, and remaining far below the mammalia, birds do not only hear extremely well, but they distinguish between and “understand” pitch, notes and melodies.
See G. Breschet, Recherches anatomiques et physiologiques sur l’organe de l’audition chez les oiseaux (Paris, 1836), with Atlas; C. Hasse, various papers in Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool. vol. xvii, and in Anatomische Studien, pts. ii. and iv. (Bresku, 1871); I. Ibsen, Atlas anatomicus auris internae (Copenhagen, 1846); G. Retzius, Das Gehörorgan der Wirbelthiere (Stockholm, 1884), ii. pp. 139-198, pls. 15-20.
