On Motion in the lumbar division of the spine of birds, by George Oakley Fleming

                                On Motion in the lumbar division 
of the 
Spine of Birds.
By George Oakley Fleming, M.D. F.R.S.
Communicated by Thomas Bell Esqre F.R.S.
Some years <s>since<\s> ago, whilst engaged in the investigation of 
the power by which birds elevate the feathers connected with 
their passions, a <s>paper upon which<\s> subject on which I sent a paper to the 
Linnaean Society, in examining the Peacock’s tail, I 
removed the triangular cellular mass into which the 
quills of the upper tail covert are are inserted; and this 
brought into view the sacrum and a portion of two muscles, 
the major part of which was covered by a plate of bone, 
and <s>upon<\s> on removing this, I obtained a view of the whole 
of these muscles, which were of considerable size, running 
parallel with the spinal column, one on each side of the 
spinous processes. I was the more surprised at the direction 
as well as the origin and insertion of these muscles, as I 
had read Mr Earl<s>s<\s>e’s very interesting paper on the mechanism 
of the spine (published in the Philosophical Transactions 
for 1822, Part 1. Page 276.), in which, in speaking of the 
extent of motion in the cervical portion of the spine of 
birds, he observes, “so great indeed as completely to com-
pensate for the deficiency in it in the dorsal and lumbar 
regions.” And at Page 278, he states “the same may be 
observed