d a hundred yards from her feeding-place, she was completely
lost, and would then obstinately try to proceed in a wrong direction. I
have received other and similar accounts of Polish fowls appearing
stupid or half-idiotic.[430]

To return to the skull. The posterior part, viewed externally, differs
little from that of _G. bankiva_. In most fowls the posterior-lateral
process of the frontal bone and the process of the squamosal bone run
together and are ossified near their extremities: this union of the two
bones, however, is not constant in any breed; and in eleven out of
fourteen skulls of crested breeds, these processes were quite distinct.
These processes, when not united, instead of being inclined anteriorly
as in all common breeds, descend at right angles to the lower jaw; and
in this case the longer axis of the bony cavity of the ear is likewise
more perpendicular than in other breeds. When the squamosal process is
free, instead of expanding at the tip, it is reduced to an extremely
fine and pointed style, of variable length. The pterygoid and quadrate
bones present no difference. The palatine bones are a little more
curved upwards at their posterior ends. The frontal bones, anteriorly
to the protuberance, are, as in Dorkings, very broad, but in a variable
degree. The nasal bones either stand far apart, as in Hamburghs, or
almost touch each other, and in one instance were ossified together.
Each nasal bone properly sends out in front two long processes of equal
lengths, forming a fork; but in all the Polish skulls, except one, the
inner process was considerably, but in a variable degree, shortened and
somewhat upturned. In all the skulls, except one, the two ascending
branches of the premaxillary, instead of running up between the
processes of the nasal bones and resting on the ethmoid bone, are much
shortened and terminate in a blunt, somewhat upturned point. In those
skulls in which the nasal bones approach quite close to each other or
are ossified together, it would be impossible for the ascending
branches of the premaxillary to reach the ethmoid and frontal bones;
hence we see that even the relative connection of the bones has been
changed. Apparently in consequence of the branches of the premaxillary
and of the inner processes of the nasal bones being somewhat upturned,
the ex