The knee-cap contributes to the formation of the region of the posterior limb which is called the _stifle_.
The tibia is large in its upper portion; in its inferior part it is flattened from before backwards. The posterior surface of the shaft presents an oblique line, below which are found vertical rough lines for the insertion of muscles. The external surface is hollowed out in its upper part. The anterior tuberosity of the tibia rises just to the level of the flat articular surface; it is hollowed in its median portion by a vertical groove of elongated form, which receives the ligament that binds the knee-cap to the tibia. The external tuberosity is more prominent than the internal; in it is found a groove for the passage of the anterior tibial muscle.
The inferior extremity, flattened from before backwards, presents a surface which is moulded on the trochlea of the astragalus; the median crest of this surface is thick, and descends lower posteriorly than the tuberosities which are situated on the external and internal aspects of this extremity.
Of the two tuberosities, that which is internal is comparable to the internal malleolus of man, the one on the outer side forms a sort of external malleolus; but this latter here belongs to the tibia, and not to the fibula.
The fibula, in fact, does not reach the inferior extremity of the tibia; it is a poorly developed bone, elongated and terminating inferiorly in a point, at the middle of the shaft of the tibia or at its lower third. Its superior extremity, which is slightly expanded, articulates with the tuberosity which occupies the outer aspect of the corresponding extremity of the tibia.
The bones of the tarsus are six in number: the calcaneum and astragalus form the upper row; the cuboid, scaphoid, and two cuneiforms form the lower (Fig. 54).
The astragalus has not, as in ruminants, an inferior trochlea for articulation with the scaphoid; this portion of the bone presents a surface which is slightly convex. It articulates with the tibia by a trochlea that occupies not only the superior surface, but also the anterior. This trochlea, which is directed slightly obliquely downwards and outwards, has a very pronounced form; its lips, which are extremely prominent, determine by their anterior part one of the features which we recognise on the anterior aspect of the _ham_--a feature which is still more accentuated when the metatarsus (_canon_) is extended on the leg. On the internal surface of the astragalus is found a tubercle, which forms a projection in the corresponding region of the ham.