SCAPULA

(L.at. the shoulder.) In Comparative Anatomy, the bone which pa es from the shoulder joint in a direction towards the vertebral column. It is broad and flat, generally triangular, sometimes sub quadrilateral, in the Mammal i a; narrow, and commonly sabre-shaped, in birds; narrow and straight in Saurian reptiles; a round, strong, and straight column, in Chelonian reptiles; variously shaped, and articulated to the back of the skull in most fishes. SCAPULARS, or SCAPULAR FEATHERS, in Ornithology, are those which take their origin from the shoulders and cover the sides of the back. [s. 1098]