The Appendicular Myology of the Sandhill Crane, with Comparative Remarks on the Whooping Crane

U NTIL recently, very little had been published on the myology of the cranes. Fisher and Goodman (1955) d escribed in detail the myology of the Whooping Crane (Grus americana) ; they also dissected one Little Brown Crane (G. c. canadensis) . I began a myological study of the Sandhill Crane (G. canadensis tabida) at the suggestion of Dr. L. H. Walkinshaw, whose interest in the biology and taxonomy of the cranes is well known. For the first specimen of this subspecies, I am indebted to Dr. Wallace Grange of Babcock, Wisconsin. After the death of this captive bird, it was frozen immediately; I dissected it during the month of April, 1955. During February, 1956, two additional frozen specimens became available. These birds were killed by hunters during the latter part of October, 1955, in Jasper County, Indiana. For these specimens, I am indebted to Dr. Charles Kirkpatrick of Purdue University and to Russell Mumford of the University of Michigan. Through the generosity of Dr. Fisher, I was permitted to study the Whooping Crane manuscript before I began my first dissection. After I had completed this work, Dr. Fisher and I discussed differences in interpretation of certain muscle complexes. Th ese differences will be explained in the descriptions of the individual muscles, inasmuch as it was too late to make changes in the Whooping Crane manuscript. There are two sets of muscle terminology currently in use in this country, that of Hudson (1937) and Hudson and Lanzillotti (1955) and that of Fisher (1946) and Fisher and Goodman (1955) ; I have included both sets of names. The muscles are discussed in the sequence used by Fisher and Goodman; they accepted Montagna’ s (1945) conclusions on the numbering of the hand digits, and, consequently, proposed new names for certain muscles (1955 :39). MYOLOGY OF THE WING