In many birds some of the thoracic vertebrae are more or less coOssified, in most pigeons for instance the 15th to 17th; in most Galli the last cervical and the next three or four thoracics are coalesced, &c. The pelvic vertebrae include of course the sacrum.
His map formed a parallelogram measuring 75,800 stadia from Usisama (Ushant island) or Sacrum Promontorium in the west to the mouth of the Ganges and the land of the Coniaci (Comorin) in the east, and 46,000 stadia from Thule in the north to the supposed southern limit of Libya.
Accordingly recourse is had, tinder the direction of the Sibylline books, to new forms of appeal for the divine help, the general vowing of the ver sacrum and the elaborate Greek lectisternium after Trasimene in 217 B.C., and the human sacrifice in the forum after Cannae in the following year.
The tail is generally very short, and its basal vertebrae are often fused with the sacrum.
In 1574, during the pontificate of Gregory XIII., a stone was dug up in the island of the Tiber bearing the inscription - " Semoni Sango Deo Sacrum Sex.