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About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at|http: //books .google .com/I r __ i ANNALS OF THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM Vol. II. 1903-1904 \V. J. nOLI.ANI), Ph.D.. ,St:.I).. 1. 1. 1)., Editor J. B. IIATCHKR, Ph.B., AssihiaU luittor I'l ll|.|»||KI> IIV I lift AttllnKIIV lift rilft: ll«»AkI» OF TkUSTEF-S crior views " hudsonkus. Skull, right lateral view. •• borealis. Skull, right lateral view Philohela miftor. Skull, left lateral view . Gallinago wihoni. Skull, left lateral view. Himantopus mexicanus. Skull, left lateral view Nununius longirostfis. Sternum, pectoral aspect " " Sternum, right lateral view . " •• Pelvis, seen from above •• " Pelvis, left lateral view. •• •• Os furcula, three-quarter oblique view from right side " Left coracoid and scapula, direct anterior aspect .... •• Left scapula and coracoid " Right humerus, anconal aspect * • * ' Right manus, palmar aspect. " •* Parts of right pelvic limb Himantopus bachmani. Skull, left lateral view " •• Mandible, viewed from above •• " Skull, superior aspect. •• Skull, basal view Hfptodon, Part of left maxillar>' with last premolar and three molars Crown view of teeth of same .... vi 7 9 lO II 24 24 24 27 27 29 29 30 32 38 38 38 41 41 41 47 48 5> 52 53 54 55 59 60 62 63 63 63 63 155 List of Figures in Text. vii Hyrachyus priscus. Mandible and anterior part of skull . . • I57 Hyrachyus. Crown view of last left upper molar . . . .158 Helodermoides tuberculatus. Top of skull, upper and lower views . 160 " •* Part of mandible . .... 160 Mesohippus iatidens. Last upper premolar and the three molars of left side. ...... 161 Trigenicus socialis. Portion of skull. Crown view of teeth . .162 Oreodo7i macrorhinus. Side view of skull . . . .164 Mesocyon drummondanus. Skull, side view . . . . .165 " Skull, palate view . . . . ,166 Leptomeryx transmontanus. Skull. Crown view of teeth . .167 Promerycochoerus minor. Skull and mandible, side view . . .169 Talpa plaiybrachys. Humerus 172 Mylagaulus paniensis. Portion of mandible showing teeth . .172 Mylagaulus. Premolar and molar 173 jElurodon brachygna/hus. Left mandibular ramus . . . .174 Hesperhys vagrans. Right ramus of mandible. Crown view of teeth of same . . . . . '175 Poatrephes paludicola. Right view of skull . . . . .177 Merychyus smithi. Part of mandible . . . . . .179 Vertebra of fish, end view. ........ 181 Sciurus sp. Portion of mandible with incisors and anterior teeth . 181 Sciurus arcfomyoides. Left ramus of mandible . . . .182 Palaarctomys fnoniamts. Skull and mandible . . . . .183 *• macrorhinus. Skull from right side . . . .184 " " Skull, lower view . . . .185 Mylagaulus pristinus. Left ramus of mandible, side and top views . 188 •' proximus. Inside and top views of mandible . .189 Mylagaulus. Portion of mandible showing position of teeth . . 190 Mylagaulus pafiiensis. Permanent premolar, side and crown views . 191 Musi f la minor. Left ramus of mandible . . . . . .192 Dinocyon ossifragus. Portion of skull . . . . . .193 ** " Skull, palate view . . . . . .194 Aphelops ceratorhinus. Nasals . . . . . .195 " " Left ramus of mandible, inner view . . 196 Merycodus necaius. Portion of antler . . . . . .197 Merycodus. " «« «« • . . . .198 Palate views of skulls of two guanacos taken from the same band at Cape Fairweathcr, Patagonia, showing remarkable individual variation in dental and cranial characters ..... 444 Ideal section of Miocene formations from Squaw Butte to south side of Running Water River, Sioux Co., Nebraska .... 474 Publications of the Carnegie Museum Serial No. 20 ANNALS OF THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM V()i>. II. No. I W. J. HOLLAND, Ph.D., LL.D., E^h'tor J. B. HATCHER, Ph.B., Associate Editor PUBLISHKD BY THE AUTHORITY OK THF Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Institute June. 1903 I Thi Hi* Ci« Ptnniossession of the entire sj)ace occupied by the present building. The Art Gallery will have what it requires for the display of the pictures which are already jx)ssessed and which may hereafter be accjuired, as well as for the annual exhibitions which have proved so important. The Museum will enter upon rooms fitted, it is hoped, for many long years to display the gradually accumulating stores of things illustrative of the forms of life and of human development and history, which make such a spot resorted to by thousands. Added to these exhibition halls will be laboratories and study rooms in which provision will be made for the prosecution of original research. Herein is the chief glory and crown of an institution of this character, that it not merely tells what man has done, but does that, which man never heretofore has done, in the way of developing a knowledge of the mysteries of the universe. It is sincerely hoped that with new and enlarged facilities the Carnegie Museum will become to a higher de- gree the exjionent in Pittsburgh of the spirit of scientific investigation. It is with much pleasure that we are able to continue in this num- ber of the Annals the presentation of the records of the old Virginia courts which were held in southwestern Pennsylvania in the years im- mediately preceding the settlement of the l>oundary controversy be- tween Virginia and Pennsylvania. The student of local history will find much in these records of great interest, and their preser\ation in printed form will no doubt be regarded as an imjxjrtant serv ice to the cause of the local historian. It is hoped in the present volume of the Editorial. 3 Annals to bring the publication of these records to completion. Many- thanks are due to Mr. Boyd Crumrine for the careful manner in which he has attended to their transcription. Mr. Hugo Kahl, formerly connected with the University of Kan- sas and latterly with the University of Illinois has taken the place on the staff of the Museum as assistant custodian in entomology formerly held by Mr. Herbert H. Smith. The following Memoirs have issued from the press: No. 2, Oltgo- cene Canida^ by J. B. Hatcher ; No. 3, The Osteology of the Stega- nopodeSy by R. W. Shufeldt. An elaborate Memoir upon the Classifica- tion of the Superfamily Chalcidoidea with descriptions of new species contained in the collections of the Carnegie Museum, has been pre- pared by Mr. W. H. Ashmead of the U. S. National Museum, and will be issued as Memoir No. 4 of the Carnegie Museum. It is now passing through the press. The paleontological explorations conducted by the Museum in Mon- tana, Wyoming, and Nebraska have resulted in the acquisition of much new and valuable material, which will constitute the basis for a number of important papers shortly to be published. Since the last number of the Annals was issued the Museum has acquired the entire collection of the birds of Holland made by Baron Snouckaert van Schauburg. The collection consists of mounted speci- mens in beautiful condition, having been mounted by ter Meer, one of the ablest of Dutch taxidermists. There are about three hundred species represented in the collection, in most cases by both sexes as well as by the young. A small collection of the birds of Costa Rica made by Mr. M. A. Carriker, Jr., has also been acquired. Among the specimens collected by Mr. Carriker are a number of rarities. Mr. W. W. Worthington is engaged in collecting the birds of Florida for the Museum. A SYSTEMATIC effort is being made to increase the collection of minerals belonging to the Museum. Within the past month several hundreds of species not heretofore represented in the collection have been acquired. The beautiful collection of gems and gemstones pre- 4 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. sented to the Museum by Mr. J. L. Lewis has been installed and is now on exhibition. The Entomological Society of Western Pennsylvania, which was organized last spring, numbers over thirty members and has held regular monthly meetings at the Museum. Much interest has been developed. At present diligent work is going on in the preparation of a list of all the species of Lepidoptera known to occur in western Pennsylvania with a view to the publication of the same in the Annals of the Carnegie Museum. The botanical collections belonging to the Museum are being steadily arranged and classified. Over twenty thousand species of plants are known to be already contained in the collection. A NUMBER of minor but important additions have been made to the collections in conchology. There are at the present time fully fifteen thousand species represented in the various collections of shells which have been acquired. I. ASTROPECTEN? MONTANUS — A NEW STAR-FISH FROM THE FORT BENTON; AND SOME GEOLOGICAL NOTES. By Earl Douglass. In October, 1901, after finishing my collecting work for the Prince- ton Museum in the region of the Musselshell River in Montana, my father and myself started westward with team and camping outfit to reexamine the Miocene deposits in the vicinity of Three Forks. We followed the Musselshell River to the source of its southern fork and passed over the divide into the valley of the South Fork of Smith River. Here, near Dorsey Station, the cream-colored nodular clays of the Deep River beds form quite high benches, while the lower benches and sage-brush flats are composed of softer material of lighter color. The latter look like the Lower White River beds as seen in other por- tions of western Montana ; and, though no fossils were found, there is little doubt that the beds belong to this horizon. I do not think that the occurrence of White River beds has previously been noted in the Smith River valley. From here we went southwestward, passing down the rugged, pictur- esque cafion of Sixteen Mile Creek. Here the Carboniferous lime- stones form huge walls, high pinnacles, and rugged masses, which are irregularly stained with red, giving them a fantastic appearance. The Madison division contains some fossils, as it does in nearly every place where it is exposed ; though the fossils are not so abundant here as in some localities. South of the main stream of Sixteen Mile Creek, in the foot-hills at the north end of the Bridger Range, about twenty-five miles north of Bozeman, we stopped at the house of Mr. Urquhart. Ascending a ridge composed principally of igneous material just east of the house, we found, near the top, a layer of hard, compact, gray, iron -stained rock, crowded with fossil leaves. This probably belongs to the Living- ston formation. We remained about three days in order to examine the cafton of the South Fork of Sixteen Mile Creek where Mr. Urquhart and his sons had found many fossils. 5 6 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. The fossils occur in dark shales and sandstones, the latter being sometimes very hard. We obtained remains of mollusca, a crusta- cean, and fish scales. The shells prove that the rocks belong to the Fort Benton group. The crustacean is Linuparus canadensis. The new star fish which is described in this paper was found by Mr. William Urquhart several years ago in these Benton beds. He showed me the place where he found it, and the matrix is like the Benton cal- careous sandstone at this place ; so his remembrance of the locality of its discovery is confirmed. The strata dip at a high angle. The locality is near the intersection of the 46th parallel and the iiith meridian and is about twenty-three miles nearly due north of Bozeman. Linuparus canadensis (Whiteaves). Hoploparia canadensis Whiteaves, Contrib. Canad. Pal., Vol. I., Part I., 1885, p. 87, PI. II. (Locality : Highwood River, a tributary of the Bow River. ) Ten miles west of the first fork. Probably Fort Benton (p. 89). Linuparus atavius Ortmann, Amer. Jour. Sci., Vol. 4, 1897, p. 290; fig. 1-3 (Niobrara?) Head of Cottonwood Creek, Mead Co., S. Dakota. There are several specimens of different sizes indicating difference in age — three carapaces, one antennal region, one abdomen well pre- served. All agree with this species in every detail except in size. Only one specimen attains the dimensions of the smallest specimen described by Ortmann. The Dakota specimen was obtained from Mr. H. F. Wells. The horizon is somewhat doubtful, though he thought it to be Niobrara. There is some doubt also concerning the Canada specimens. Astropecten? montanus, sp. nov. The type consists of an impression in the hard calcareous sand- stone. Since it is only an impression its anatomical characters can only partially be made out. Size small ; arms five, narrow and gradually tapering, longer than diameter of body ; five radial elliptical figures on body, all except one nearly in line with the long axis of the arms. The most prominent markings are the pits which probably represent the marginal plates. It is possible however that these may be impressions of the ambulacra. Half way from the base to the end of the arm each row of pits is nearly Douglass : Astropecten ? Montanus. 7 as wide as the middle portion of the arm. Only one^rm is complete. This has twelve pits on each side and they are opposite. From the central pit to end of perfect arm 1 2 mm. From central pit to margin of body between the anns 3.5 mm. It was said by those who saw it when first obtained to have possessed Utile markings on the margins of the arms. The rock was used for years as a step near the door and if these were present they have been wholly worn away. I The rock is a hard, fine-grained calcareous sand- '" '"""P"' . , . , , , . ten? mon/anuiDoue- stone, greenish-gray m color and weathering to ^^^_ jj^^_ ^j ^ brown on the surface. Natural size. Below are given determinations of the accompany- ing fossils and notes which were both kindly fijrnished by Dr. A. E. Ortmann . They are of interest as determining the horizon of the beds and showing the fauna of the Fort Benton near the eastern portion of the mountain region, since much of the Cretaceous of this region has been foimd to be poor in fossils. Inoceramus undabundus Meek and Hayden (?). Stanton, Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv., 106, 1893, p. 84, pi. 6, figs, i, 2. (Fort Benton. Upper Missouri Region.) Five casts ; smaller than type, but outline and character of sculpture similar ; the imdulations, however, are a little more crowded, which may be due to the younger age of our specimens. Pinna lakesi White (?). White, izth Ann. Rep. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv. of Terr., Part 1., 1883, p. 17, pi. II, fig. I. Ridge sixteen miles west of Greeley, Colorado. {Fort Pierre.) Reported from South Fork of Old Man River, Canada, by Whit- eaves. Contrib. Can. Pa!., Vol. 1., part i, 1885, p. 84. Apparently Fort Benton (p. 89}. One fragrant compared with the type agrees well, but is smaller and more compressed, sculpture identical. Pholadomva papvracea Meek & Hayden (?). Stanton, Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv., 106, p. 116, pi. 26, p. i. Fort Benton group. Upper Missouri region. Three specimens (both valves). 8 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. The identification remains doubtfiil. Our individuals correspond to this species in sculpture, but they are longer and thicker. Stanton mentions specimens from Montana that are much larger than the type. SCHLOENBACHIA SHOSHONENSIS (Meek). Mortoniceras s)ioshonensis Meek, Rep. U. S. Geol. Surv. Terr., Vol. 9, 1876, p. 449, pi. 6, figs. 3 and 6. Stanton, Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv., 106, 1893, p. 179, pi. 44, figs, i and 2. Fort Benton, of Wyoming. One fragment hardly larger than the one figured by Meek, but evi- dently the same character of sculpture. ScAPHiTES VENTRicosus Meek & Hayden. U. S. Geol. Surv. Terr., Vol. 9, 1876, p. 425, pi. 6, figs. 7 and 8. Stanton, Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv., 106, 1893, p. 186, pi. 44, figs. 8-10, pi. 45. (Fort Benton of Upper Missouri region.) One complete individual of about the size of that figured by Stanton in pi. 44, fig. 10, and agreeing with it exactly in the external charac- ters (sculpture). Indeterminable casts of bivalves, Ostrea ? Exogyra, CucullcBa, and gasteropods ( Tiirritella ?) . Note. The specimens above described are in the Princeton collec- tion with the exception of Astropecten ? montanus which is in the Car- negie Museum. Carne(;ie MrsEUM, October 6, 1902. II. ; DISCOVERY OF REMAINS OF ASTRODON (PLEUROCCE- LUS) IN THE ATLANTOSAURUS BEDS OF WYOMING. By J. B. Hatcher. While engaged during the season of 1901 in collecting dinosaur remains in the Atlantosaunis beds on Sheep Creek, Albany Co., Wyo- ming, Mr. C. W, Gilmore discovered two vertebral centra (No. 578), which I am unable to distinguish either generically or specifically from those described and figured by the late Professor Marsh as pertaining to Pleurocaliis nanus, which, as will be shown later, should be re- garded as a synonym of Aslrodon johnstoni Leidy. Figs, i and a. Cervical centrum of AUn side and above 1 one half nalural size. (No. 578. ) One of these centra, lateral and superior views of which are shown in Figs. I and 2, I regard as pertaining to a posterior cervical. Its sides are deeply excavated in such manner that the body of the cen- trum is reduced throughout its middle region to superior and inferior horizontal plates connected by a thin median vertical lamina. The neural canal was small and much constricted medially. The centrum is strongly opisthoccelous and the transverse diameter is greater than the perpendicular. It agrees almost perfectly in size and general characters with the cervical centrum of Aslrodoft {F/eiiroca:lus) nanus figured by Marsh in his Dinosaurs of North America', except that in 1 Siiteenth Ann. Rep. U. S. G. S., I't. i, Fl. XL. 10 NAi^ OF THE Carnegie Museum. the present specimen the facet for the cervical rib is broken away, thus giving to this region a somewhat different aspect. The centrum shown in Figs. 3 and 4 I regard as pertaining to the last dorsal. The posterior extremity is moderately concave, and the anterior slightly so. The lateral cavities are deep, though not so pro- nounced as in the cervical ; that on the left side is decidedly deeper than the one on the right. The neural canal was much larger than in the cervical and at about its middle there is a deep pit giving origin to two small foramina which no doubt served for the transmission of nutrient blood vessels to the interior of the bone. The vertebral cen- KliM. 3 and 4. Cenlrum of lasl f dorsal Ken from left iide and above, (No. 578.) One hair natural si«, trum described by Marsh as a posterior dor^l and figured in plate XL., Figs. 4 and 5, of his Dinosaurs of North .America, in reality pertained to an anterior dorsal, as is evidenced by its strongly opislhoccelian character and the more extended pleurocentral cavities, while the dorsal centrum figured in the text as ])ertaining to Pleuroceelus was from the mid-dorsal region, as is evidenced by its less decided opistho- cielian nature and smaller lateral cavities. In Figs. 5 and 6 are shown lateral and superior views of a jxisterior caudal centnim, pertaining to about the same region as that figured by Marsh in plate XL., figs. 8 and 9, of his Dinosaurs of North .America, from a si>ecimen found in the I'otomac beds of Maryland. The pres- ent s]>ecimen was found by Mr. (iilmore in the .Ailaniosaurus lieds, on Sheep Creek, ^Vyo., but in a different ijuarry from that whi(.h furnished the dorsal and cervical centra figured above. Hatcher : Astrodon in Wyoming. 11 A careful comparison of these remains with those figured by Marsh as pertaining to Pleuroccelus nanus ^ based on material discovered by the present writer in the Potomac beds of Maryland, will, I think, show it to be quite impossible to definitely distinguish these remains either generically or specifically from the latter. The same may be said of Figs. 5 and 6. Lateral and superior views of centrum of distal caudal. (No. 585. ) One half natural size. the material upon which was based Marsh's description oi Pleuroccelus montanus. These western forms may, however, be specifically distinct from the Maryland species. Synonymy of Pleuroccelus nanus Marsh and Astrodon JOHNSTONI LeIDY. It now remains to discuss the synonymy of the above-mentioned genera and species. The generic name of Astrodon was given without description in the American Journal of Dental Science, 1859, by Dr. Christopher Johns- ton to certain reptilian teeth obtained by a Mr. Tyson from a bed of iron ore near Bladensburg, Maryland. In i^b^,"^ 2iS Astrodon johnstoniy Dr. Leidy fully described and fig- ured these teeth, thus placing the genus on a valid foundation. A comparison of Dr. Leidy* s figures of the teeth of Astrodon johnstoni with Marsh's figures of Pleuroccelus nanus will show a very striking similarity between the two, which is rendered all the more striking by an actual comparison of the specimens themselves. Moreover since I myself collected all of the material described and figured by Professor Marsh I can assert that it likewise was found in a bed of iron ore near Bladensburg, Maryland. The exact locality of the Marsh material was certain iron ore mines on the farm of Mr. Wm. Coffin, and especially in that one locally known as ' * Swampoodle ' ' and situated about one and one half miles northeast of Beltsville on the Baltimore and Ohio Railway, some thirteen miles from Washington. Since these remains 2 Memoir on the extinct Reptiles of the Cretaceous formations'of the United States, Smith, Contr. to Knowl., Vol. 14, PI. XIII, figs. 20-23. 12 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. were found in essentially, and perhaps identically, the same locality and horizon, and, in consideration of the very great similarity which they exhibit, there appears no good reason for considering them as pertain- ing to either different genera or species. Astrodon johnstoni Leidy having priority should therefore be retained, while Pleuroccelus nanus would become a synonym of that genus and species. Relations of Astrodon johnstoni Leidy (Pleuroccelus nanus Marsh) and Elosaurus parvus Peterson and Gilmore to OTHER GENERA OF JURASSIC SaUROPOD DiNOSAURS. It will have been noticed no doubt that the character of the remains which have been referred to the above-mentioned genera and species indicates that they pertain to animals not yet fully adult. This is shown by the sutural connections exhibited between the centra and neural arches of the various vertebrae ; by the free coracoid in Elosaurus ; and by the character of such portions of the skull of Astrodon as have been recovered. While collecting in the Potomac beds I secured a number of fragments of skulls pertaining to both upper and lower jaws. Whenever teeth were present they invariably belonged to the first series and were not yet fully erupted, the points of the crowns scarcely rising above the borders of the jaw, showing conclusively that the animal had not yet reached the adult stage. Some of the larger limb bones from Maryland described by Professor Marsh as Pleurocalus alius ^ may per- haps have pertained to fully adult individuals, but unfortunately only the tibia and one or two other fragmentary limb bones of this is known. Now it would seem somewhat remarkable that only immature specimens of these animals should have been secured while for the most part only fully adult representatives of such genera as Diplodocus, Morosaurus, Brontosaurusy etc., are known from the same deposits. Since these last-mentioned genera must have been represented by young and im- mature individuals it does not seem at all improbable that some of the remains which have been referred to Pleuroccelus, Astrodon, or Elosau- rus may in reality belong to the young of some of these genera of the larger sauropoda. From what we know of the cervicals and dorsals of Astrodon (^Pleuroccelus^ they might very well have belonged to a young specimen of Brontosaurus as might also the detached teeth figured by both Leidy and Marsh ; while the fragment of a jaw figured by Marsh ^Am.Joum. Sci., Vol. XXXV, 1888, p. 92. Hatcher : Astrodon in Wyoming. 13 in plate XL. of his Dinosaurs of North America as pertaining to Pleuro- ccelus nanus agrees very well, except in size, with a similar fragment of Brontosaurus figured in plate XX. If one compares the detached teeth oi Brontosaurus and Astrodon {Fieurocoslus^ as shown by Marsh respectively on plates XX. and XL. of his Dinosaurs of North America, he cannot but be impressed with the remarkable similarity which they exhibit. While it is true that some of the remains described by Pro- fessor Marsh as pertaining to Astrodon (^Pleuroccelus) could not pos- sibly have belonged to a young Brontosaur, it is equally true that the association of this material is purely conjectural. No two bones or fragments of all that material collected from the Potomac beds in Maryland were found in such relation to one another as to demonstrate that they had belonged to the same individual. In any discussion as to the affinities of these various genera and species of small sauropod dinosaurs, not only the immature nature of the remains upon which they have been based, but also the scattered and disarticulated state in which they were found, must be constantly borne in mind. With the possible exception of Elosaurus panms it remains to be shown that any of these forms are not the young of some of the well-known larger forms, and most of the known remains of this last-mentioned genus resemble very closely in many important details like parts of the skele- ton of Morosaurus, as has been pointed out by Peterson and Gilmore in their original description. The discovery of these remains of Astrodon in the Jurassic deposits of Wyoming is of the greatest importance as furnishing additional evi- dence in favor of the reference of these two widely separated deposits to one and the same geological horizon as was originally suggested by Marsh. Should future discoveries demonstrate that any one, or all of these smaller sauropods, are but immature representatives of the larger forms, the evidence in favor of this correlation will be strengthened rather than weakened. Marsh has reported remains of Astrodon {Fleuroccelus) from the Jurassic deposits near Havre in Normandy, while the type of Astrodon {Pieuroca^lus) suffosus was derived from the Kimmeridge of Swindon, England. It is evident therefore that these dinosaurs had a very wide geographical distribution and that while the European forms may belong to different species than the American they nevertheless furnish important evidence as to the rela- tive age of the European and American deposits. Since the Kimmer- idge clays are of undoubted Jurassic age, and considering the simi- 14 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. larity existing betvv'een the dinosaur remains of that formation and those of the Potomac and Atlantosaurus beds, the age of the two latter would seem to be not more recent than Jurassic. Carnegie Museum, October 23, 1902. III. OSTEOLOGY OF THE LIMICOL^.. By Dr. R. W. Shufeldt. Introduction. Two or three years ago I gathered together into one memoir a num- ber of papers I had published on the limicoline birds since 1883, digesting, as well as augmenting, the material thus collected. Subse- quently I went over this entire MS. again, improving it in many ways and adding many new facts, which I had obtained as a result of my studies of more extended series of skeletons of this group. Finally, at the present writing, that is the last part of September, 1902, the entire monograph has been carefully gone over again, and largely remodeled, and this entailed a copying of many pages of the work — a task cheer- fully performed for me by my wife Alf hild, to whom my thanks are due. As the paper now stands, it is probably the most extensive con- tribution to the osteology and taxonomy of the LhmcolcB that has appeared from the pen of any writer on the subject up to the present time. With this brief prefatory history I pass at once to the consider- ation of the results of my researches in the osteology of the forms con- tained in this suborder. On the Osteology of the Limicoline Birds, with Views Upon Their Classification. It was Professor Alfred Newton who said under the article ** Plover " in the ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (Vol. XIX., p. 228) that ''Though the various forms here spoken of as Plovers are almost certainly closely allied, they must be regarded as constituting a very indefinite group, for hardly any strong line of demarcation can be drawn between them and the Sandpipers and Snipes. United, how- ever, with both of the latter, under the name Limicolce, after the method approved by the most recent systematists, the whole form an assem- blage, the compactness of which no observant ornithologist can hesitate to admit, even if he be not inclined to treat as its nearest relations the Bustards on the one hand and the Gavia on the other, as before sug- gested. ' ' This is quite in harmony with my own views in the premises, 15 16 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. and I believe with Professor Newton that it meets the ideas of the majority of systematists, and I may add, what is more important^ the ideas of most avian morphologists. Of the Limicoia, this great suborder of birds, widely known as the ** plover-snipe '* group, and in the main constituting the Charadrio- morphae of Professor Huxley (P. Z. S. 1867, p. 457), Coues has said, that ** Most of the families of this order are well represented in this country, and will be found fully characterized beyond. The position of Parrida is in (juestion, and it probably belongs here rather than among the families where it is ranged \jAlectondes\, There are several outlying or inosculating families in the vicinity of Limicola and AlectorideSy of uncertain position. The largest of these is the Bustard family, Otididct^ which connects Limicola and Alectorides so perfectly, that its position has long wavered between these two orders ; the balance of evidence favors its reference to the latter. The typical families are Charadriida and Scohpacidd.'' (**Key'* 2d ed., pp. 596, 597.) In these remarks Coues says nothing about his having placed the Herodiones between the Limicolae and the .Alectorides in the work cited, which he has done, and his remarkable classification of the latter group is too well known to call for any comment here. Professor Max Fiirbringer in his great work upon the Morphology of Birds arranges the Limicola in the following manner. S . SB fi- ts •• S. O. CHARA- DRIIFORMES. G. S. l^T. Lar<»-Limi- G. S. STR. Charadrii. G. Parr.*:. G. Otipks. \ F. Charadriid;e. F. 5. str. Glareb- lidoe. F. 5. str. Droma- didar. F. Chionididx. F. I^ridx. F. Alcid«. F. Thinocoridae. F. Parridx. Y. Oldicnemidae. F. Otididie. Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe in his ** Hand List of Birds" (1899) con- siders them as an Order, (XV.), Charauriikormfs, and places them between the Larikormf:s, (Order XIV.) and theGRUiK)RNfF:>%, (Order XVI.). He divides the Charadrii formes into no less than seven Sul>orders, namely the Chionides, the -\ttagides, the Charadrii, the Parrae, the Cursorii, the (Kdicnemi, and the Otides, and these names will sufficientlv indicate the families of birds this author considers to Shufeldt : Osteology of the LiMicoLiE. 17 belong to the limicoline assemblage — everything in fact from a Sheath- bill to a Bustard. The author's views on the position of the Limicolse are presented with a discussion of their affinites at the close of the present Memoir. More or less typical limicoline birds are found in nearly all parts of world, and they are particularly well represented in the avifauna of the United States. So that the full description of their osteology given beyond will thoroughly characterize the group as a whole. Much has been written on the subject of their skeletology, and of this I have availed myself. My own writings, published for a number of years in \ki^ Journal of Anatomy of London, \ht Journal of Morphol- ogy and elsewhere, illustrated by many plates and figures, have al- ready set forth the osteological characters of the American LimicolcR quite exhaustively. This work will be used to the fullest extent here, and thoroughly revised. In dealing with the Aphrizidce, as I remark further on, I have only employed my monograph in the Journal of Morphology to the extent of using the facts set forth in it, and not in- corporated it here as a whole. My private cabinets afford the skeletons of many American limico- line forms, and these have been handsomely supplemented by the loan of many others from the collections of the U. S. National Museum, and from still others from the collection of Mr. F. A. Lucas. Pro- fessor Alfred Newton has also sent me for my inspection several speci- mens from the Museum at Cambridge, England, and others from his own collection. These very well illustrate points in the osteology of Scolopax rusticola, Favoncella pugnax, Vanellus vanellus and others, for all which my thanks are here tendered. Others have also sent me useful material and it is referred to later. Osteology of the Phalaropes. (Complete skeletons of Crymophilus fulicarius and Phalaropus lobatus examined. ) Phalaropes have a skull of much the same general form as we find it among the Sandpipers, the narrow and extended superior mandible being considerably larger than the cranium, while the very open structure of the latter gives it a peculiarly delicate appearance. Upon severe maceration the premaxillary does not appear to come away, and detach itself, as it does in most Tringce, and it is rather more spread out laterally than it is in those birds. The narial vacuities are o 18 Annai^ of the Carnegie Museum. long, open slits, and there is no osseous septum narium. Phalaropes are typically schizorhinal birds, and their skulls are characterized by having a deep longitudinal median depression over the region of the cranio-facial axis, upon either side of which the upper portion of the small lacrymal is prominently tipped up. Below, this bone sends down a thread-like osseous limb, which bending smartly backwards, fuses by its posterior extremity with the upper and outer angle of the rather large and cjuadrilateral pars plana. Nasal bones and the zygomje are straight and very slender. On the superior aspect of the cranium, the frontal region is seen to be extremely narrow between the superior margins of the orbits ; the fronto-parietal region is rounded and smooth. Further back there is a fairly well marked superoccipital prominence, which in the Red Phalarope is pierced upon either side by a foramen, which is not the case in P. lobatus. Both the anterior wall of the brain -case and the interorbital septum are very deficient in bone. Into the last open space there is thrown backwards from the posterior margin of the mesethmoid a free, hori- zontal, and very slender spur of bone. On the lateral aspect of the skull we find the iK)st -frontal and stjuamosal processes, especially the latter, to be inconspicuous spinelets of bone. At the base of the cranium the foramen magnum is large and of a cordate outline ; the basitemporal region beyond it being somewhat contracted. The pterygoids are short, small, and vertically compressed, and they articulate, as in all true limicoline birds, with the basi -pterygoid pro- cesses of the sphenoid. Their palatine heads are separated in the middle line as are the palatines for much of their length behind. These latter bones have extremely narrow prepalatine |>ortions, widely a}>art an- teriorly, and belim* the na.so-maxillary junction fusing with the maxillo- palatine plate, upon either side. Posteriorly, their postero-external angles are rounded off, while their descending internal and external margins are prominent and keel-like. In the middle line in front they merge to form a spiculifomi ix)int, which coossifies with the broad ish, thin, lamellar vomer, which latter terminates in a free blunt apex an- teriorly. Either maxillo-palatine is of an oval outline, scroll-like and lamelli- fonn in structure, with a great perforation existing in it, which absorbs its entire central j>ortion, leaving l>arely more than the rim of the bone. These maxillo-palatine proces.ses are well sej)arated from each other in the middle space, and they neither of them come in contact with any of the adjacent bones, as the vomer, or palatmes. Shufeldt: Osteology of the Limicol^. 19 This plan of structure is, as we know, what Huxley has termed the schizognathous type, and it is characteristic, as we have seen, of the first three suborders of birds treated in former memoirs, as it is of several others. A quadrate bone in one of these Phalaropes is very pneumatic, as is indeed most of the rest of the skull, and it has a double mastoidal head, with a conspicuous orbital process, and a small internal mandibular facette, separated by a valley from a larger oblique external one upon its same aspect. The bony meatus of the ear is very open, and in P. lobatus permits a view along the entire length of the eustachian tube to its anferior exit. In the eyeballs the sclerotal plates are small, and the bones of the hyoidean arches are slender. Long and of an acutely V-shaped pattern, the mandible has com- paratively rather an extensive symphysis, and from it behind, in the median line, may project directly backwards a delicate spine. Either ramus is rather shallow in the vertical direction, and is pierced by a slit-like **ramal vacuity,** exposing the presence of the splenial element of the jaw. The angular processes are lamellar in structure, and inclined somewhat to hook upwards. They are by no means in- conspicuous in P. lobatus. With respect to the characters of the remainder of the skeleton, they may well be seen in a specimen of the species I have just named. I find twenty-one free vertebrae in its spinal column before arriving at the pelvis. Counting from the skull, the fourteenth vertebra supports a pair of tiny free ribs, while those on the fifteenth are considerably longer, though they do not reach the sternum, there being no costal ribs for them. There are six pairs of true vertebral ribs, all being very deli- cately constructed, as are their long slender unciform processes. The haemapophyses of the one pair of pelvic ribs do not reach the sternum, and there is a tiny ** floating** pair of the former kind behind them. The dorsal vertebrae fit very closely together in their articulations, and their metapophyses are notably long. TYiQ pelvis is a very thin, light, and open structure. Anteriorly, the iliac margins are rounded off in front, and these bones do not meet over the crista of the sacrum. The parial foramina, two rows upon either side of the middle line of the bone, are large and open among the lateral processes of the fused vertebrae of the sacrum, lending to the pelvis a peculiarly frail appearance, already noted above. At the 20 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. lateral aspect we find the rather extensive obturator space separated by bone from the foramen of the same name. Behind, the post-pubic style is long drawn out and drooping upon either side, and the pos- terior foot of the ischium, which is applied to the superior margin of the same, is notably long and slender. Upon the nether side we find but one pair of the lateral processes of the sacral vertebrae, thrown out, modified, and lengthened to act as braces opposite the acetabulae. There appear to be seven free vertebrae in the skeleton of the tail, and to these is to be added a squarish and rather large pygostyle. The sternum of P, lohatus (as well as other species of the genus) has essentially the same pattern as the sternum of any typical Plover, as for instance C, squataroia. Its carina is ample, with the carina! angle in front rather prominent and jutting, which in some degree is caused by the concavity of the anterior border of the keel. Posteriorly the sternal body is twice notched upon either side, while the ma- nubrium is small, and the costal processes triangular, broadish, but not particularly high. Os furcula of the shoulder-girdle is of the U-pattern, being much bowed to the front, and with a small hypocleidium below. Either free clavicular extremity develops near its pointed end upon its outer as- pect a shoulder, supporting a small facet for articulation with the head of the corresponding coracoid. When articulated in situ^ this pointed extremity rides well over the clavicular process of the scapula, being at the same time in contact with it. The coracoids are short, but not especially stout, the shaft being straight with its sternal extremity much expanded. Here we find three processes, so often to be observed among the water birds at large. Of these, one is at either extremity of the sternal facet of articulation, and the other is a conspicuous lateral one, triangular, and lamelliform, being almost exactly as we find it in Aphriza and other types. The blade of the scapula is somewhat expanded for its posterior moiety, and its apex is truncated obliquely from within outwards and back- wards. Its way of articulation with the os furaila has already been described above. Phalaropes have non -pneumatic limb-bones throughout. The hu- merus is long, and its shaft is nearly straight. At the proximal end the ulnar crest is prominent and overshadows an extensive concavity ; the radial crest is not nearly so well developed. Distally above the oblique tubercle an epicondylar process juts out, and indeed the whole Shufeldt : Osteology of the Limicol^. 21 < bone has much the form of the humerus as seen in Charadrius domin- icus. The radius and ulna present nothing very peculiar, and the latter is but little bowed along the continuity of its shaft. The row of nibs for the secondary quill -butts are present. The distal phalanx of the index digit is long and slender, and the expanded portion of the proximal generally exhibits two small perfor- ations, as in the Laridce. The index and medius metacarpal are nearly straight, the latter being very slender. Passing to Xht pelvic limb we find the short, straight y5?/«2/r to possess a length just equal to half the length of the tibio-tarms. Its head is sessile on the shaft, and the trochanter is moderately raised above the articular summit of the bone. In the tibio-tarsus the cnemial crests are conspicuous, especially the inner one, and in fact they almost exactly resemble in form those parts in miniature, as we observe them in a Ful- mar. The lower part of the fibula is of hair-like dimensions. The hypotarsial process of the tarso-metatarsus is small and subcubical in form, being both pierced and grooved for tendons. The accessory metatarsal is suspended above the distal trochleas, and the hallux digit is small and feeble. As to the other toes, their basal joints are the longest in any case, and they gradually diminish in length as we proceed in the direction of the terminal ungules. Comparative Osteology of the Plovers, (Skeletons of representative species of the genera Vanellus, Charadrius and yEgialitis examined. ) A number of years ago in my article on the osteology of y^, mon- tana, a bird at that time designated by American ornithologists as Podasocys montanus, I remarked that '* there has always been something strikingly columbine to me in the outward appearance of a plover's head — a similitude that is by no means shaken when we come to ex- amine the prepared skull, in which so many of the bones are arranged as they are in the cranium and face of a pigeon.** The skull of y^. montana is extremely light and fragile, due to the access of air to numerous cells in certain parts of its interior, and likewise to a gener- ous supply of diploe in other localities. I find in the chick of the plover only a few days old, that the premaxillae have thoroughly coa- lesced along the culmen of the beak for its outer or anterior third, but the suture dividing them posteriorly along the nasal process of these 22 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. bones is, at this tender age, distinctly visible, whereas all the sutures in the face become obliterated in the adult.* Posteriorly along its dentary border the premaxillary throws back- wards two processes, each of which articulates by squamous sutures ; the first and longer, the maxillary, with the maxillary bone ; the second, or shorter, the palatine process of the preraaxilla, with the palatine. This arrangement is found in all of our plovers. Several formina are seen on the sides of the culmen beyond the anterior bor- der of the nostril. The nasals have each a broad expansion in front of the frontals, where they articulate with each other along the median line as far for- wards as the nasal process of the premaxilla ; here they contract and dip under that bone on either side, conforming themselves to its width and form, still so as to articulate with each other beneath it, as far forwards as the prolongation of the premaxillary, where they slightly diverge from each other, to terminate in pointed extremities. Posteriorly, the nasals throw down, obliquely forwards, straight bars of bone, which bound the osseous nostrils behind, to be carried forwards over the maxillae on either side, to the maxillary process of the premaxilla, where they articulate by squamous sutures beneath the bone. This arrangement of the nasals is very much as we find it in the pigeon (C livia^ ; and, as in the pigeon, the aperture forming the bony nostril is long and very open. Both are schizorhinal birds. The mesethmoid extends well forwards in the plovers, thus affording above a spreading table for the frontals, nasals, and premaxilla to rest upon. The lacrymals in Vanellus and yEgialitis are not very large bones, and in the adult they anchylose with the anterior margins of the fron- tals, where they form the rounded anterior terminating margins of the orbital peripheries. In C squatarola this part of a lacrymal is more jutting and conspicuous, owing to the fact that the anterior foramen of the supraorbital gland is in that species converted into a deep, rounded notch. In ^. montana, a lacrymal sends down an attenuated pro- cess that fuses with the outer margin of the antorbital plate, or lateral mass of the mesethmoid. From this margin the lacrymal de- velops two spine-like processes, which project fon\'ards, the upper one being the longer, the lower one almost touching the maxillo-jugal bar. These spine-like processes are absent in Varullus^ and very much 1 As I transcribe these remarks from my memoir in iht Journal of Anatomy I am- plify them by the use of the more extensive material now at hand. Shufeldt : Osteology of the LiMicoLiE. 23 aborted in the Killdeer Plover, where the descending process of the the lacrymal is much broader and fuses more completely with the pars plana. Varying in size in the different species, the pars plana long remains cartilaginous in the plovers, but eventually becomes a quadrate osseous partition, quite effectually separating the orbit from the rhinal cham- ber. An irregular foramen for the passage of the nerves always occurs above it, being very large in CharadriuSy owing to the comparatively smaller size of its antorbital plate. The vomer of the fountain Plover is an extremely delicate and elongated bone ; in front it runs out into a free and needle-like point, while posteriorly it is bifurcated so as to articulate with the palatine upon either side. It glides freely beneath the anterior pointed end of the rostrum. Turning our attention to the palatine bone, we find that on either aspect it forms the osseous roof of the mouth by sending forwards a tapering prepalatine to anchylose with the maxillary and premaxillary at their junction. The postpalatine portion of the palatine is expanded, and it is separated from the fellow of the opposite side in front, where the inner margin dips down to form the *' internal lamina" of the palatine bone. Outwardly the bone is produced still further down to form the ** external lamina." The pterygoidal processes of the pala- tines are in contact with each other, while the ** ascending processes " articulate with the forks of the vomer as already pointed out above. The maxillo-palatines are elegant scroll -like laminae of bone, often per- forated by a few foramina. Posteriorly, they do not normally come in contact with the palatines on either hand, or with the vomer above them. Anteriorly each bone has two processes ; one, the stouter, connecting it with the palatine ; the other, much more slender, with the maxillary, while between the two a circular foramen is thus pro- duced. In all our Plovers the zygoma is a very straight bar of bone, and somewhat slender in its proportions. The superior periphery of an orbit, formed by the frontal and nasal of the corresponding side, is uniformly tilted upwards all along its con- tinuity. Within this raised orbital rim, upon either side, we find the well-marked depressions for the supra-orbital glands, pierced along their bases by minute foramina, the largest perforation being at the anterior end. In C squatarola these glandular depressions pass be- 24 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. yond the osseous orbital border in front, the gland, during life, resting there upon the tissues that overlie the eyeball superiorly. This tilting up of the superior orbital borders is best marked in the curious skull of M. stmipalmata, where it offers a very striking feature. In it, too, the supra-orbital glandular depressions are very distinct, and Tiy.!. Fic, 1. A side view of Ihe forepart of Ihe skull of Cliaradrius pluviti/is enXat^eA, jl/j, maiillary ; Afxp, maxiUo-paUtine ; PI, palatine ; Au, nasal ; />, frontal ; Et/i, ■ethmoid ; L, laetymal ; J'mx, premaxillory. ( After Huxley.) Fig. 3. Under view of the same (C. filuvialii) partially dissected and enlarged. ■(After Huxley.) Feg. 3. Skull of Charadrins squalarala ; superior view. (Si)ec. 7963, Coll, U. S. Nat. Mus.) Fig. 4. Left lateral view of the mandible of Charaiirius sqiialarola. Natural size. Figs. 3 and 4 drawn by the author. they each terminate anteriorly in a single, large subcircular foramen, situated well within the external edge of the orbit. The fron to -parietal vault of the cranium is very smooth and rounded Shufeldt: Osteology of the Limicol^e. 25 externally, and is very thin in ^, montana — thicker in the Golden Plover. A large vacuity absorbs almost entirely the interorbital sep- tum below, merging with the foramen rotundum behind. Separated by an osseous horizontal lamina, there exists above this another large vacuity, the forward extension of the foramina for the first pair of cranial nerves, which are greatly increased in size. At the back of the cranium there is a fairly well pronounced supra- occipital prominence pierced upon either side by an oval foramen. In examining the base of the cranium in a young chick of the Killdeer Plover (y^. vociferd) I observe that the bony bridge that lies between the supra-occipital foramina is formed by the supra-occipital itself; it is cleft above at this stage, and stouter lateral masses are seen on either side of it. The basi-temporal is still distinct as an element, as are the ex- and basi-occipitals. At the side we find that the squa- mosal sends upwards an ascending process, long and slender, which overlaps the posterior third of the rounded margin of the frontal, and itself makes the periphery of the orbit. This bone below develops a ** zygomatic process,'* marked by a semicircular nick at its extremity, which arches over the articulation for the quadrate. In adults a sphe notic process is fully developed. The occipital condyle is small and circular, with the notochordal notch nearly obliterated. With respect to the quadrate, it is peculiar only in having its pro- cesses and shaft much compressed and plate-like. The orbital spur, making up nearly half the bone, is a quadrilateral lamina, with its base applied to the entire length of the body of the shaft of the quadrate proper. A long narrow condyle surmounts the otic process, placed at right angles to this orbital offshoot, and the pit for the quadrato-jugal occupies the summit of the outstanding lateral mandibular process. Rather undue shortening takes place in the shaft of a pterygoid, owing to the far backward reach of the palatine and the great size, on the other hand, of the quadrate. Basi-pterygoidal processes are present and articulate with facettes at the base of the sphenoidal rostrum. The hyoidean arches are very delicately constructed, but present nothing peculiar ; they are described for other limicoline birds be- yond. The mandibular elements fuse together early in all true plovers, and in the chick the ramal fenestra is not obvious, whereas^ as the bird ma- tures, a small slit-like opening makes its appearance. The posterior angular processes of the lower jaw are recurved 26 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. spines of bone slender in comparison with the rather massive intumed angular processes, each of which is pierced near its apex with the pneumatic foramen, seen in so many of the class. The rami of the mandible of this mountain plover make a very acute angle with each other, and the upper margins are quite sharp, while they are rounded inferiorly. Ossifications of the organs of special sense, as the eye and ear, present nothing but their usual ornithic characters. Of the Axial Skeleton. — Twelve vertebrae, including the atlas and axis, are found in the spinal column of the neck of all of our plovers. The cup of the atlas is roundly notched behind to its center, and the axis possesses a knob-like neural spine. In the third vertebra this process becomes a small compressed square lamina, and in this segment, too, we find an extensive quadrate hypapophysis below, and a minute foramen on either side, in the bony plate joining the zygapophyses. These features reappear in the fourth vertebra, but the foramen men- tioned has so increased in size here that it is reduced to a mere inter- zygapophysial bar. In the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth, the neural spine has disappeared ; the hypapophysial plates are longer and shal- lower ; the parapophyses persist as parial and at the same time lateral spines, directed posteriorly. The last four vertebrae of the twelve under consideration are modified for the carotid canal. Upon them the neural plates are suppressed. These four vertebrae are the longest in the neck, and their post-zygapophyses, diverging from each other, reach well backwards. In several respects the thirteenth and fourteenth vertebrae are peculiar, and differ from the leading twelve cervicals. They are broader, wider, and each supports a pair of free ribs with well-developed tuberciila and capitula ; the second pair, or those on the fourteenth vertebra, may bear uncinate processes, situated low down on the rib. The neural spines are still suppressed, but the hypo- pophyses again make their appearance mesiad and beneath the centra ; in the thirteenth it consists of a single plate, while in the fourteenth a lateral offshoot springs from each side of this, so that three lamelli- form prongs are present in that segment. A deep pit, with overhang- ing brim on each side of the centrum, is for the first time observed in these two vertebrae as we descend the series. It becomes wider and shallower as we pass through the vertebrae beyond, but does not dis- appear until we pass to those united to form the sacrum. The succeeding six vertebrae, or the fifteenth to the twentieth in- clusive, are all free, and all support true vertebral ribs that articulate Shufeldt : Osteology of the Limicol*. 27 with the sternum by the means of costal ribs or hsemapophyses. The neural spine is well pronounced in the first (fifteenth) of this series, but in the remaining five it is a lofty median crest, each interlocking, before and behind, at the angles at the summit, in a schindylesial articulation. Transverse processes stand out horizontally from these vertebrie, and needle-like metapophyses connect them in several in- stances, though they do not quite meet in every case. The fifteenth and sixteenth vertebrae retain the hypapophysial processes, being triple in the former, while in the latter it becomes single again, long and tri- angular. In the remaining four it is entirely absent. The vertebral ribs are quite slender, and all support long unciform processes, which in the adult articulate with their posterior borders ; the costal ribs become longer as we proceed backward in the direcrion of the pelvis. There are twelve vertebras in the pelvic sacrum, and from this com- pound bone, during ordinary maceration, the true bones of the pelvic Fig. 5. Pelvis of Charadritu dominuus, iiewed from above ; natural siie (Speci- men No, 16,715 ; Collection of the Smilhsoman Instttulion. Collected by the Point Barrow Expedition of iSSa in Alaska) B) the author. Fig. 6. Sternum of Charadnm domtni us, pectoral aspect ; natural siie. Bj the author, from the same specimen which furnished the pelvis for Fig. 5, girdle are easily detached. The first four sacral vertebrae throw out their lateral processes as abutments against the nether sides of the spreading ilia ; and above, these last-named bones meet the sacral crista but not each other across it. There is a pair of slender pelvic ribs, but their hiemapophyses fail to reach the costal borders of the sternum. They articulate with the hinder borders of the last pair that do. The 28 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. next five following sacral vertebrae are compressed from above down- wards, allowing for a swell in the neural canal within, which is to ac- commodate that enlargement which here takes place in the myelon. The ninth sacral vertebra has its transverse processes strengthened and lengthened to act as sustaining abutments opposite the acetabulae. To still further insure strength, the outer ends of these processes are verti- cally expanded. Four rows of interapophysial foramina, two upon either side of the sacrum, constitute one of the main features of the pelvis of a plover, when we come to regard it upon its dorsal aspect. Either post-pubic style is of nearly uniform caliber, and is produced considerably beyond the ischia behind. The posterior extremity of either ischium is produced, long and pointed, and rests during the life of the bird, against the upper surface of the post-pubic style. Mergence of the obturator space and the small obturator foramen may or may not take place. It even may vary for the same species or be different on the two sides of the same pelvis. I must note here that in a pelvis of a Killdeer Plover before me the ilia do not meet the sacral crista ; that character does not go for much, however. Including the pygo- style, from seven to eight vertebrae make up the skeleton of the tail in Plovers. I find eight in Ai. vocifera, and seven in y^. montana. Vanellus also has eight. Probably specimens of the Mountain Plover will eventually come to hand having eight of them, also. Coming next to the sternum and shoulder-girdle^ I find the entire ap- paratus to be non-pneumatic in nature. No foramina are to be ob- served. The OS furcula is the perfect miniature of that bone as it occurs in much larger birds of the present suborder, Nutnenius longirostrisy for in- stance. The clavicular limbs are of uniform thickness throughout, and only very slightly increased in bulk where they unite, mesiad and below, to support a small quadrilateral hypocleidium. Substantially, the method of articulation of the shoulder-girdle bones with each other is the same as we found it among the Phalaropes. The form of the cora- coid is almost identically the same in ^, vocifera and Phalaropus lobatus and there is very little difference in the shape of the scapulae — either species having the bone fully twice as long as the shaft of a coracoid ; and in yE. ?nontana its blade is curved, broad, and rounded at its posterior extremity. It reaches well back towards the ilium, over- lapping the ribs. Shufeldt: Osteology of the Limicol^. 29 The manubrium of the sternum is a stumpy process, shaped like a wedge, being notched above and sharp below. Above this process the coracoidal grooves nearly meet at a point in the mesial plane at its base, while the lateral processes of the same name, of a triangular form, rise only to a moderate degree above the superior margin of the bone, to bear along the posterior border of either one, the facettes for the costal ribs, six on each side. The xiphoidal extremity of the body of the sternum of yE, viontana is four-notched, the notches being deep, and giving rise to five proc- esses, a median one, the under surface of which supports the hinder part of the carina, and a pair on each side of it. In Vanellus the inner pair of perforations are subelliptical foramina and not notches. Fig. 7. Pelvis of Charadrius dominicus^ right lateral view. Natural size (Spec. 16715 Coll. U. S. Nat. Mus. ). Fig. 8. Pygostyle and last caudal vertebra of Charadrius dominicus ; right lateral view. Natural size. Same specimen. In the sternum of a Killdeer Plover at my hand (y:^. vocifera) the inner notch on the right-hand side is also converted into a foramen. C. squatarola has them as in ^. montana. Viewed laterally the sternum of a Plover very closely resembles that bone as we see it in Aphriza virgata ; indeed, in so far as shape is concerned, irrespective of mere size, this bone is of a very uniform pattern throughout the majority of our typical Lhnico/ce — the Woodcock, (^Fhi/ohcia^) and Wilson's Snipe, ( GanindgOy ) being conspicuous departures therefrom. Ossification in Plovers is normally extended, as in so many other birds, to the plate of the superior larynx, the rings of the trachea, and a few tendons and sesamoids. Of the Appendicular Skeleton. — The chief point of interest that attaches to the limbs of our Plovers is that they are, in every case, absolutely non-pneumatic, both the pectoral and pelvic extremities presenting, in all the bones that compose them, those characters, after maceration, so well described by Hunter.^ The long bones are also non -pneumatic in Gallinago and Philohela^ which are other birds of * Observations on the Animal QCconomy, Palmer's ed., 8vo, 1837, p. 178. 30 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. not very dissimilar volatorial habits. All the bones of the limbs in Plovers are impressed with the more usual ornithic characters. In the humerus we find the proximal extremity well expanded, and a strongly marked, curling crest overshadowing the usual site of the pneumatic foramen in birds where it is present. The ** preaxial ridge * * is shorter than we usually find it, that is, it does not extend so far down the shaft ; this shortening, however, is not accompanied by any dimi- nution in the height of this ridge. The humeral shaft is straight and subcylindrical on section ; its distal extremity supports the usual points for examination, and the epicondyloid spur is well developed. (See Fig. 9.) Both radius and ulna are moderately bowed along the continuity of their shafts, and the row of quill-butts are ranged along that of the Fig. 9. Left humercw of Charadrius dominicus^ palmar aspect ; natural size ; by the author, from specimen 16,715 of the Smithsonian Collection (taken at Point Bar- row, Alaskan Expedition of 1882). latter. There are a dozen of these in Vanellus. The skeleton of the hand in any true Plover is a long one, and in C. squatarola that seg- ment is fully as long as the skeleton of the antibrachium. The pol- lex has one joint, the next digit two, and the last, one ; there are no claws or spurs in the manus of these birds, as seen in some of the Asiatic forms. There is a very remarkable resemblance of the skeleton of the pectoral extremity of a Plover to the corresponding structures in a Gull. (Compare for instance Z. delawarensis zxiA C. squatarola.) The entire length of the skeletal arm of ^. montana measures 14 centimeters — of which the humerus takes 4.4 ; the ulna 4.6 ; the car- pus o. 2 ; the metacarpus 2.3 ; and the two phalanges of index digit 2.5. In the femur we notice that the head is sessile on the shaft, and placed nearly at right angles to it ; on its upper surface the pit for the ligamentum teres is seen. The crest of the great trochanter is sharp and elevated above the general surface of the summit of the shaft. At the distal end, the outer or larger condyle falls but a little below the inner one, the groove for the head of the fibula being well cut into it. Of the two processes on the anterior aspect of the head of the tibio- Shufeldt : Osteology of the Limicol/E. 31 tarsus y the inner one is of a broad quadrilateral form inclined out- wardly, while the external one is a rounded, claw- like, and sharp process, curving downwards. The usual osseous bridgelet for the confinement of tendons is seen in front just above the condyles. Tht fibula is a very delicate spicula of bone, reaching down, in the articulated skeleton, only half way to the external condyle. The hypotarsal protuberance of the tarso-vietatarsus is in reality converted into two processes, so deep is the tendinal grooving down its posterior aspect. In ^, montana the inner process is the larger, and sends from its lower portion a sharp ridge of bone that is carried down on the shaft and gradually merges with it. The pits to receive the condyles of the tibio-tarsus on the superior aspect of the head of the tarso-metatarsus are deep, and a knob-like apophysis arises be- tween them on the anterior boundary. Just below this a fossa exists, at the base of which a foramen is seen, which pierces the shaft from before backwards, coming out behind to the inner side of the larger process of the hypotarsus. In all our plovers the shaft of this bone of the leg is long and straight, and the mid-trochlea projects well be- yond its fellow on either side. The usual foramen is seen just above its base and on the outer side. Among our plovers it is only in C. squatarola and in Vanellus that we find a small hallucial joint present, hung rather high on the shaft of the tarso-metatarsus. It is altogether absent in the Killdeer and others. Otherwise the podal joints are normal, both in arrangement and char- acter, so far as the three anterior digits are concerned. Measuring from the summit of the trochanteric crest of the femur, on a straight line to the apex of the claw of the mid-digit in the skele- ton of the leg in yE. fnontanay we find it to be in the adult male, 15.5 centimeters in length. Of this the femur takes 3.0, the tibio-tarsus 5.6, the metatarsus 4.2, and the mid-digit 2.7 centimeters. With respect to its skeleton, no true Plover will depart in any marked degree from the pluviitline skeletal characters as they have been set forth in the above account. On the Comparative Osteology of Numenius longirostris . Curlews agree with all other true limicoline types in being typically schizorhinal birds. (See F'ig. 10.) In the skull the iiasal bones are arranged and formed much as they are in the Phalaropes, but without an immature specimen, which I am Shufeldt: Osteology of the Limicol.*:, 33 sorry to say I lack, it is impossible to tell how far forwards beneath the culmen, and on the inner sides of the premaxillary the nasals are extended. We have just seen above that they reach almost to the tip of the beak in Plovers. The premaxillary is quite broad and subcompressed as it slopes somewhat gently away from the frontal region of the skull between the nasal bones. It becomes gradually narrower as it proceeds towards the distal tip, but alters but little in form. In an old individual of N. longirostnsy it is nearly six times as long as the remainder of the skull, twice as long as the corresponding parts in N. borealis. Other forms graduate between these two ; in N. arquata it is fully four times as long, and is more generally curved throughout. At the point marked / in Fig. lo, and in B of Fig. 1 1, the nasal meets the maxillary. Beneath, and a little beyond this point, the palatine also merges with these bpneS. These elements thus unite to form a common rod that contracts immediately after the union to a delicately fashioned stem to which I have given the name of the subnarinal bar. They are seen on either side of the nasal process of the premaxillary, at first beneath the osseous narinal clit, then to pass under this bone, be- coming at the same time flatter, more closely applied for the . entire length, until they merge into it near the tip at k. Fig. lo. In N. longirostris these bones may be pulled away from the other part of the premaxillary, as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. ii, ^, and they spring back to their original position when the hold is released. This is only possible in those curlews that have very long bills. It is not a particularly noticeable feature in the Eskimo Curlew, nor the whimbrel. The sutures among these bones are completely obliterated in the adult skull, so it is not possible to tell the precise limits of the several ones entering into the composition of this bar ; no doubt the dentary or maxillary process of the premaxillary takes a large share. The delicate curling crest of bone found just within the nasal bar above, and united with the rounded outer margin of the premaxillary, belongs to the nasal of that side. In N. hudsonicus this character is absent, while, on the other hand, it is exaggerated in N. borealis^ in which bird the entire rhinal chamber seems to be filled with this enlarged bone, here forming a hol- low sub-cylinder, which meets a similar cylindrical formation of the maxillo-palatine coming from below. (Compare c and d, Fig. 12.) We find the vomer to be a very well developed bone in N. lon- 3 34 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. ^rostris. It is a thin spearhead -shaped lamina of bone, pointed in front, bifurcated behind, where either fork fuses with the ascending process of the corresponding palatine. On the under side of this horizontally disposed vomer there is a thin, vertical, median crest, which in front merges into the free pointed extremity, while posteriorly it is produced backwards by two vertical plates which grasp and ride upon the rostrum. These latter are the bifurcations to which I have just alluded. In N. kudsonicus and N. phaopus the anterior tip of the Fm. II. Basal and superior views of Ihe skull of Nuimniiu longimslris, natural siie ; A, the Ijasal view, lower mandible removed ; H, the superior view, like lettering designating like parts, pmx, premaiillary ; i', vomer ; //, palatine ; '«, maxillary ; «, nasal ; ith, lateral wing of ethmoid ; /, lacrymal ; q, quadrate ; //, pterygoid ; fm, foramen magnum ; j/, supra-occipital foramen ; also in A, sn, the subnarinal bar, and m' its position in dotted lines as drawn away from the premaxillary on either side. In B, 1, the point of meeting of nasal and maxillary. vomer is bifurcated. As a rule the ma\illo-pa!atines are not as much curled as we find them in (he Plovers, and the imion with the i>alatine is more extensive. As in the Plovers, however, they are riddled with perforating foramina ; more frequently the foramina in either maxillo- palatine plate merge into two regularly suboval ones. Shufeldt : Osteology of the LiMicoLiE. , 35 The postpalatine portion of the palatine is broadish with its lamina and process strongly developed. These bones are well separated from each other beneath the rostrum, and the pterygoid process is turned outwards. Taken in proportion to the size of the bird, the prepala- tine portion of the palatine is relatively shorter in N. longirostris than in any other species, while N, hudsonicus and N. phceopus, with their comparatively longer crania, have that portion of the palatine corre- spondingly lengthened out. The iacrymai, though small, stands out quite prominently at the an- tero- superior orbital border. It articulates largely with the nasal, and in all curlews sends down a slender bony style which unites with the upper and outer angle of the pars plana, by which means a large foramen in this locality is encircled. These ethmoidal wings have the same general appearance in all the members of the genus. Each one is a quadri- lateral plate, projecting nearly at right angles from the mesethmoid, to form an ample partition between the rhinal and orbital cavities. The interorbital septum is never entire in any of the true curlews, but is pierced in almost identically the same manner in every species. The forms of these interorbital vacuities can best be seen by referring to the several lateral views of the skulls illustrating this memoir. But one specimen of the skull of TV. hudsonicus lies before me, and in that the dividing bar between the two openings is evidently broken out. I have restored it by dotted lines (Fig. 12, C). The pterygoids are comparatively short bones in all the curlews; more particularly so in our present subject. They are twisted and angular in appearance, with sharp longitudinal edges. An elliptical facet occupies the middle of the inner aspect of each, which articulates with the basisphenoid process on either side. Each quadrate bone presents the usual undulatory surface upon its mandibular head for articulation with the lower jaw. Just above this, on the inner aspect, is a small, semiglobular facet for the cup on the outer end of the pterygoid. The orbital process is a quadrate, lamelliform plate with truncate extremity, while two articulating facets are seen to occupy the dilated end of the mastoid process of the bone. On the outer side we find the usual cotyle for the projection on the quadrato- jugal. The form of the quadrate varies but very little among the other representatives of this genus. Several foramina are seen at the base of the deep sunken cavity from which the fifth pair of nerves issue. This is the case in all the spe- 36 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. cies, and this elliptical pit on the posterior wall of the orbit, just above the quadrate, is quite a striking feature of the skull. Ossification is so far deficient in the interorbital septum opposite the exit for the optic nerves that this aperture is here one large circular opening. To its outer side, however, separate and minute circular foramina exist for the third pair. This latter condition seems to be common to all the species. The olfactory nerve in the anterior part of each orbit has for its reception a well-marked canal that leads to a foramen (JV. longi- rosfn's), or a notch {N. phceopus), into the rhinal chamber. A side view of the skull presents for examination, in addition to other points already noticed, the osseous entrance to the ear, which is here shielded behind by a rather prominent tympanic wing. The sphenotic process in all curlews, except X. horealis, is a long, sharp-pointed spine, and even in the excepted species it may become quite long in old birds. An upper and lower spine project forward from the squamosal, over the articulation for the quadrate. This feature is more prominent in the continental species, N. arquata, than in any of our American forms of curlews, though it is by no means entirely absent on the lateral as- pect of the skull of N, lon^irostfis. In the eye the usual sclerotal plates are found ; they are compara- tively small and about twenty in number. The superior aspects of curlew skulls offer some very diverse characters. In all the craniofacial region is concave and traversed by a faint longitudinal median groove that becomes lost beyond on the premaxilla. This groove is deepest in N. arquata. In N. lon^irostris the superior orbital peripheries are but slightly serrated, and the orbital roof just within them is pierced by but very few minute foramina. The ** glandular depressions" are shallow. The surface between them is depressed, though the inner margins or boundaries of these depressions are somewhat raised and prominent. These margins, in X. phicopusy merge into a single median ridge or crest ; the orbital rims are decidedly serrated with small incomi)lete foraminal perforations, and the glandular depressions would hardly attract atten- tion. The raised median line is single and still more prominent in .V. arquata, causing the depressions to aj)pcar more concave. In my specimen one large foramen is seen close to the orbital rim on one side, situated rather ])Osteriorly, with a corresponding notch on the opposite side. In X, hudsonicus the orbital rims are comparatively Shufeldt : Osteology of the Limicol^. 37 smooth ; no evidences exist of the glandular depression, and the region is barely concave ; a minute foramen exists on each side pos- teriorly. Numenius horealis has strongly marked glandular depres- sions of a semilunar form, situated just within the smooth orbital peri- pheries. A decided median groove divides them longitudinalljj, which in that species is continued on the culminar portion of the pre- maxilla for a short distance. The glandular depressions terminate an- teriorly in this curlew, in a notch, on either side, just behind the lacrymal bones. The parietal region is smooth and globular, being impressed in most of the species by a longitudinal median groove, most noticeable in N. arguata^ less so in N, borealis, least of all in N. phceopus. Among the chief points of interest in the basal view is the form of the foramen magnum. This is nearly circular in N, longirostis and N. arquata ; cordate in N, phceopus. The condyle is small and hemispherical in all the species, and has situated beyond and on either side of it, the usual vascular and ner- vous foramina seen in this locality in ordinary birds' skulls. Two large supraoccipital foramina, of elliptical outline, exist in our present subject and in N. arcuaia ; these openings are very small in the Whimbril, and exist only on one side in N. horealis^ as a minute perforation. The surrounding muscular line of the occiput is quite strongly marked in all the species ; least of all in the Eskimo Curlew. Within the brain-case we find the tentorial ridges quite prominent, well dividing the various encephalic compartments. The longitudinal one appears to be ungrooved by the sinus. Foraminal openings occur in the usual localities for the entrance or exit of nerves and vessels. But little diploic tissue seems to be de- posited between the tubular walls of the cranial vault, these latter being quite thin, and composed of firm, compact bone. The curvature of the mandible is almost identical with that of the upper bill or premaxillary. When articulated with the skull it is found to be in all the species a few millimeters shorter than the latter bone. In N. longirostris the rami separate and diverge from each other at a point about midway between tip and articular extremity. Beyond this point the mandible is in one piece, rounded beneath and with rounded lateral angles above. A groove deeply marks the bone along its entire course in this portion, in the median line. The rami still remain rounded for some distance backwards after they separate from each as Annals of the Carnegie Museum. other, but, just before they arrive at the long slit-like ramat vacuity, they dilate to become lamethform plates compressed from side to side. The upper borders of these plates curve inwards towards each other. A second small circular foramen, situated at the base of a larger con- cavity, on the outer aspect of the ramus, between the vacuity and the hinder end, exists in all the specimens before me, except JV. huiisonicus. The articular ends are of a form most common to all ordinary birds of the present suborder ; they are produced posteriorly into small vertical plates that turn outwards, but do not curve upwards to any great extent, thus ditfering from what we found in the Plovers. The usual pneumatic foramina are found at the inturned apices of the articu- Fk;. iZ. Right laleral views of the shulls upper figure), and .V". borcalis (D, ihe lower oi maxillary ; «, Ihe nasal ; /, ihe lacrymal ; //, ihe ( d, dentary ; h, the subnarinal har. ladrate ; //, palali lar cups. The sutures defining the limits of the bones that originally entered into the composition of the mandible in any of this genus, have become almost entirely obliterated, the edge of the dentary alone sometimes being persistent. With the exception that the ceratohyah have fused with the glosso- hyal, or the posterior part of it, as is usual among birds, all the remain- ing elements of the hyobranchial apparatus of the curlew remain free Shufeldt: Osteology of the LimicolvE. 39 during life. The first piece of the arch, just named, has the form of a long arrow-head, with quite a sizable fenestra towards its hinder end. This is the inter-cerato-hyal fenestra. The first basi -branchial has a median longitudinal ridge above, connecting the two enlarged articulating extremities ; the posterior one has two facets for a cerato- branchial element on each side. These are long and slender, curving upwards. They support the equally delicate epibranchials, which terminate in filaments of cartilage. The second basibranchial is quite short, comparatively speaking, it being in turn produced backwards by a slender, cartilaginous tip. It will be seen from this description, as far as I have carried it, how really very much alike is the skull of a Plover and the skull of a Curlew. Comparative Notes from the Skulls of other Limicoline Birds. — Although the skull of Himantopus mexicanusy the Black-necked Stilt, has most of the usual limicoline characters, its general form is quite different from that of the skull of either a Plover or a Curlew. Viewed superiorly, we find the median crease very deep between the orbits, and the glandular depressions on either side of it are semilunar in form, strongly stamped and definite in outline. The convexities are directed towards each other. ^ Each terminates anteriorly in a single foramen, that pierces the roof of the orbit beside the lacrymal bone. The inter- orbital septum of this Black-necked Stilt is markedly deficient in bone, and the anterior wall of the cranium does not fare much better in this respect (see Fig. 13). Supra-occipital foramina of the most usual form are found in this bird also, the muscular lines of the occiput being well defined above them. The pats plana of either side is but feebly de- veloped, and the descending spine of the lacrymal falls far short of reaching this bony projection of the mesethmoid. Upon basal view we find the palatines long and narrow, with the vomer slender, and terminating in a sharp point anteriorly. The hinder end of each articular part of the mandible in Himantopus has the appearance of being scooped out, so as to form a semiluniform cavity. Recurvirostra americana. — Several of the characters presented on the part of the skull of Himantopus are substantially reproduced in the case of the Avocet. Chief among these is the form assumed by the proximal ends of the mandible, the extreme narrowness of either pars plana, and the free-hanging descending limb of either lacrymal, * The present specimen may be defective. It was prepared at U. S. Army Med. Museum before I had charge. 40 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. though the superior part of each of these bones projects much further from the skull than it does in the Stilt. The Avocet also differs from Himantopus in having a more perfect interorbital septum ; in the supra-occipital foramina being circular ; in the vomer being broad and widely forked at its expanded anterior extremity ; in the shallower supra-orbital depressions, which in the Avocet merge together in the middle line, and are carried out on the projecting lacrymals. It is scarcely necessary to call attention to the difference in the form of the skeleton of the bills in these two birds. The Avocet stands alone with his upturned mandibles, and even the beak of the Stilt is quite unique. The Skull in the Woodcocks , and in Gallinago. — Although essen- tially limicoline in their general character, the skulls of Scolopax rusticola, Philohela minor and Gallinago delicala, and no doubt others of those genera, depart in some very striking particulars from the limicoline skulls we have thus far considered in this paper. Except in point of size there is scarcely any difference between the skulls of the European ^ and American Woodcocks, the former being about one fourth larger. In the former the great, capacious and circular orbits, with their raised superior borders, have crowded the greater part of the brain -case downwards and forwards, thus bringing the foramen magnum into the horizontal plane, and the other parts of the skull have the appearance of being moved to the front. All this is also seen in Gallinago j but not quite to such a marked degree. In the Snipe, also, the orbits are more elliptical in outline (Fig. 13, f), and the median, longitudinal crease between them on the superior aspect of the skull, more pronounced. Both Snipes and Woodcocks have the occipital condyle very small and hemispherical in form ; it being sessile in the former, but rather inclined to be pedunculated in the latter. The supra-occipital promi- nence is well seen in S. rusticola, in which species the foramina, one upon either side, are absent, though they are generally found in the American Woodcock, and always in Gallinago. Of a cordate outline, the foramen magnum is of large size in these birds, being as wide in S. rusticola as the basitemporal area in front of it. An osseous sei)tum narium exists in all the birds, being most com])lete in the Sni])e. It 'I use the specimen kindly loaned me by Prof. A. Newton, F. R.S. (No. 308) from the cabinets of the zoological collection (osteological department) of the Uni- versity of Cambridge, England. Shufeldt: Osteology of the Limicol*. 41 is very peculiar in the woodcock, for from a median lamelliform plate between the nostrils it gradually swells beneath (he culmen as it passes to the front of those apertures, then again soon contracts to merge with the narrow and flattened median process of the premaxil- lary, near the juncture of the anterior and middle thirds of this part of the bill. Below this point the dcntary processes of the premaxil- lary are thin and horizontally flattened. In front of this again the mandible becomes solid, being only grooved in the middle line upon ^=^, A. KlG. 13. Left lateral views, natural si7e, of skul1sor/>>li/»*W«wi«Hr(E), linngo wilsani (F), and Jlimnnlopm mexieanus, (G). «, nasal ; //, palatine pterygoid ; q, quadrate, and a, articular. its nether aspect. Now from this plan of structure we have in this straight superior mandible of the woodcock a section about a centi- meter long, which from the thinness of the bones is quite flexible in the vertical direction, the continuity of the osseous beak both in front and behind this section being much firmer and stronger. This feature, if anything, is still better marked in the snipe. It is well known that 42 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. the woodcock and snipe have the ability to curve up the anterior extremity of the upper bill, and so far as the skull in these birds is concerned the power to perform such a feat is quite apparent. Passing to the cranio-frontal region, we are to note the large lacry- mal which sweeps backwards to join with the post-frontal, thus com- pleting the orbital periphery in bone, a very rare condition, as we know, in birds. In the Woodcock the plate-like vomer is vertically disposed, but at the same time it is exceedingly small, being drawn out in front to a point of absolute hair-like dimensions. It is horizontal in Gallinago^ and both larger and longer. In Gallinago and in the Woodcock, too, the interorbital septum is quite complete, though in the former species many small deficiencies may occur in the bone on the anterior wall of the brain-case in some individuals. The pterygoids are exceedingly short and thick, the facet for the basisphenoid process occupying nearly the entire length of the shaft. This is especially the case in Philohela. In the mandible of Snipes and Woodcocks the hinder end is bent down almost at a right angle, and the ramal vacuity is unusually large in Galiifiago. The Skull in the Long-billed Dowitcher. — In a skull of this species, Macrorhamphus scolapaceuSy which I collected in New Mexico, I see a number of characters to remind me of the skull in Gallinago y but not- withstanding this, the conformation of the skull, especially its cranial portion, partakes more of the character of the larger Sandpipers. The morphology of the superior osseous mandible is as in Gallinago. Superiorly, the lacrymals, however, jut out more distinctly and promi- nently, and their descending portions, not at all produced backwards ^ fuse with the large square pars plana. The post-frontal process is very long and extremely slender, while the interorbital septum is not so thoroughly completed in bone. Maxillo -palatines are practically absorted, as indeed they are completely so in Woodcocks and Gallinago. An osseous septum narium is also to be found in Macrorhamphus y which, as in Wilson's Snipe, is an extension forwards of the mes- ethmoid, and probably the nasals grasp it in the middle line beneath the premaxillary, but I would have to have the skeleton of a young snipe to prove that point. In all these true scolopacine types the zygoma is very short, straight, and slender, and inclined to be trans- versely conipressed (especially in Wilson's Snipe). Shufeldt : Osteology of the Limicol^e. 43 The mandible of Macrorhamphus agrees with that bone in GallinagOy and the hyoidean apparatus in the two species is practically alike. Its osseous parts are extremely delicate in point of structure. The skull of Micropalama himantopus offers us a most perfect go-be- tween, standing as it does exactly between the Dowitchers {^Macro- rhamphus^ and the Trmgas. It is undoubtedly a Snipe -sandpiper in every sense of the word. The structure of the upper bony bill, as de- scribed above for Gallinago, has, in it, almost mellowed down to what we find in the typical Sandpipers, while the mandible shows the posterior flexure to some degree, and its cranium is truly scolo- patringine. Notes upon the Morphology of the Skull in the Sandpipers. — There is at my hand a complete skeleton of Tringa mariti?nay and its skull, except in point of size, appears to be almost exactly like the skull as we find it in Phalaropus lobatus. So far as the essential characters are concerned they are absolutely identical in the skulls of these two birds, and it is only slight variation in pattern that causes any differ- ences to exist at all. The bill of the Phalarope is straight ; the bill of the Sandpiper is somewhat decurved, but withal, the characters of this part of the skull are the same. T. marititna has the supra-occipital foramina present, but they are likewise so in Crymophilus, and I count very little on that fact. Tringa ptilocnemis has a skull that very closely resembles the skull as found in Aphriza virgata. The differences between the two are hardly worthy of notice. Tringa minutilla has a skull of the most delicate construction, but it is typically limicoline and scolopacine as well. Most noticeable in Tringa is the absence of the supra-orbital glandu- lar depressions and the extreme narrowness of the region of skull where they occur in the other forms. Tringa fuscicollishdiS the supra- occipital foramen and the fenestra in the interorbital septum, as in the curlews. There seems to be in the mandible an inclination for the hinder ends to bend downwards. This character is also observable in Tringa minutilla^ and in this sandpiper the space between the orbital margins, on the superior aspect of the skull, is reduced to a very narrow isthmus. It is much wider, comparitively, in Tringa bairdi ; and this form also faintly shows the glandular depressions. They are quite well marked behind. The mandible shows the posterior bend, and the articular extremities throw 44 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. « off behind lamelliform, upturned processes that are a prominent fea- ture in this bone. The vomer is pointed in front, and the supra- 9ccipital foramina are present. Tringa maculata and Tringa alpina possess skulls very much alike in many of their characters — in the arrangement of the maxillo-pala- tines, the presence in each of the glandular depressions with a similar form. Both have the supraoccipital foramina and great deficiency of bone in the anterior wall of the brain -case and interorbital septum. They differ in the form of the ethmoidal wings. T. maculata shows a little bony loop, projecting forwards from the outer borders of this plate, which is absent in the Dunlin. In the Pectoral Sandpiper this ethmoidal plate is not carried up so far as it is in T, alpina^ in which bird it absorbs the lacrymal on either side. The little osseous loop on the ala-ethmoid, referred to as a charac- ter in T, maculata, is seen also in Rhyacophilus soliiarius. Here, however, its upper limb comes down from the lacrymal to throw in its lower limb at a right angle to the ethmoid. This explains the man- ner in which it is developed and accounts for its presence. The vomer is pointed anteriorly in the Solitary Tattler. A deep median pit char- acterizes the cranio-frontal region in T. pusillus. In Actitis macularia the glandular depressions on the roofs of the orbits are long and narrow and bound the entire supra-orbital peri- phery. This constitutes a real difference as compared with all true sandpipers, and also denotes in some degree a relationship to the curlews. A. macularia has also the supraoccipital foramina present, and of some considerable size. Very large vacuities occur in the interorbital septum, and the foramina for the optic, olfactory, and other nerves have all run together to form one large irregular foramen. Bartrajfiia longicauda does not possess the supraoccipital foramina, and the glandular depressions above the orbits are still narrower than they are in Actitis, In this latter Sandpiper we find a minute spur on the anterior margin of the pars plana, directed forwards ; and its maxillo-palatines have each such a large vacuity in their bodies that either one is reduced to a mere hair-like rim of bone. Its vomer is long and pointed. The skeleton of the remarkable Spoon-bill Sandpiper {Eurynorljyn- chus pygmceus) has been examined by Mr. J. Anderson, and he com- pletes his paper on the subject by saying that ** The foregoing exami- ShUFELDT : OSTEOLOCiY OF THE LiMICOLiE. 45 nation of the osteology and other characters of Eurynorhynchus reveals only one important feature wherein this bird structurally differs from the genus Tringa^ namely, the singular expansion of the bill, the, structural equivalent of a similar modification in Platalea leucorodia. Indeed, this species, as pointed out by Mr. Harting, was originally placed in the genus Platalea by Linnaeus." * A careful study of the skull of Heteractitis incanus convinces me that in that part of its anatomy it indicates rather close affinity with such forms as Totanus flavipes and T. melafioleucus. We will now pass to the consideration of the skull in some of these birds, as well as of the Godwits and others. Skull of the Godwits^ Willets^ Tattlers^ and Others. — In Totanus me- lanoleucus the glandular depressions above the orbits are wider again, and the supraoccipital foramina are present. A median notch is found in the upper border of the foramen magnum. In Totanus flavipes nearly half the anterior wall of the brain -case is deficient, and the interorbital septum is not formed in bone at all. This latter char- acter does not occur in the Willet {Symphemia semipalmata). In this interesting bird we find the supraoccipital foramina to be of some size, and of an elliptical outline. The glandular depressions are barely perceptible. Just beyond the cranio-facial region, on the culmen, we note the persistence of the premaxillary sutures. This shows to some extent how far the nasals must extend forwards. The vomer is pointed anteriorly, and the interorbital vacuity is divided by an osseous bar. Upon a ba.sal view we find that the lower borders of the maxillo- palatine plates appear. They are attached to the palatines anteriorly, being directed backwards as free lamina. Their connection anteriorly with the maxillaries is by their outer angles. In the mandible of Symphemia the true ramal vacuity has become a mere slit, filled in with a plate of bone ; while the small foramen I described in the Curlews is here very large, and has more the appearance of the true ramal vacuity as seen in other birds. This condition likewi.se exists in Litnosa fedoa and Z. hcpmastica. The rims of the orbits in the former bird are rounded, differing in this respect from the Curlews. In this Codwit, too, we note a pointed 'Anderson, J, " On the Osteology and Pterylosis of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper i^E. pygfuicus).^'' Trans. Linn. Soc. (2ser. ). I. Zoology. Ixmdon, 1879, pp. 213- 217. The (juotation is from p. 217. A handsome plate (osteology) illustrates this memoir. 46 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. vomer in front, and the presence of the supraoccipital foramina in the occiput. The glandular depressions above the orbits have disap- peared, and the openings in the interorbital septum are three in num- ber, and smaller. A deep, circumscribed, and obliquely inclined groove is found on the lateral aspect of the skull, back of the entrance of the ear. In Limosa rufa a deep gutter is seen between the orbits on viewing the skull from above. Anteriorly it is bounded by an emi- nence on the premaxillary. The lacrymal is small in all the Godwits, and connects with the ethmoidal wing, as in the Curlews. In this genus Limosa the structure of the superior osseous mandible is much as we find it in Galiinago, as given above. I have not examined the skull of the Ruff {F. pugnax) ; it, how- ever, probably only exhibits the usual limicoline characters, with some slight modifications for that particular species. In writing to Pro- fessor A. Newton for a skeleton he replied tome in a letter of the 27th of November, 1889, and said: ''Herewith I send you a sternum of Machetes ; I regret to say that we have no skull. It is a most useful thing to have correspondents who make demands like yours upon us, as thereby we learn our deficiencies. Of course we ought to have at least one skeleton of this form, and I shall made it my business to try to get one next year — but it will not be a very easy matter ; the bird is practically extinct in England (/*. e., there is only one place known where it still exists, and nothing would tempt me to procure one thence) and is become so rare in Holland that I doubt whether any are now sent to our markets, and I think it must be ten or a dozen years since I have seen one in a poulterer's shop." Comparative Notes upofi the Remaijider of the Skeletoti in the Curlews a?td other Forms. There are fifteen vertebrae in the cervical portion of the spinal column of N. longirostris. The only other complete skeleton I have of a Curlew (^N. horealis^ shows the same number, so probably this holds for the genus. Free ribs occur on the fourteenth and fifteenth, and in my specimen of the Long-bille!Q Curlew, the thirteenth vertebra of this chain shows persistent sutures upon the lines of anchylosis of the pleurapophyses on either side. So individuals of this species may be found wherein three pairs of cervical ribs exist, they being free upon the last-named vertebra. In the atlas, the neural arch is very broad from before backwards, with its posterior angles tipped with ShUFELDT : OSTEOLOQV OF THE LlMlCOL^, 47 small nodules of bone. The cup for the occipital condyle is perforated by a minute foramen at its base. We find the neural spine of the axis to be represented by a large and tuberous knot of bone, and the transverse processes in this vertebra, directed upwards, backwards, and outwards, are unusually stout and heavy. The " odontoid process " is small, and shows an articular facet on its inferior aspect. Beneath, the hypapophysis is a strong plate of bone, pointing backwards, with thickened border below. The third vertebra has well -developed parapophysial spines; a closed vertebral canal ; elliptical foramina, one on each side, in the The : lamina of bone extending between the zygapophysial processes; a neural and hypapophysial spine, the former being a small plate situ- ated posteriorly. In the fourth vertebra these characters are all still to be found, though the foramina above are closed in only by an extremely slender interzygapophysial bar. The fifth vertebra is very much elongated ; the mid-portion of the centrum is represented by a median longitudinal lamina of bone, extending between the more 48 Annals of the Carne(;ie Museum. solid and terminal pieces that support on their outer aspects the articular facets for the vertebrie before and behind it. The neural spine is reduced to a sharp line ; the posterior zygapophyses are out- standing processes. The sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth vertebne are substantially the same in character as the fifth, though they are growing shorter as we proceed backwards. They show also the open carotid canal. In the tenth vertebra this is replaced again by a hypa- pophysis, a single plate placed anteriorly on the centrum beneath. The vertebral canal is still a closed passage, and the neural spine is absent. Extensive pneumatic foramina exist in all the ultimate seg- ments of the cervical division of the spinal column. The eleventh and twelfth vertebrre arc slowly changing, to bring about what we find strongly developed in the thirteenth. In this latter we observe a well- pronounced double neural spine, occupying a mid-position on the neu- ral arch. The postzygajjophyses are elevated, but still project out- wards. Anteriorly, the vertebra is very broad from side to side, owing to the far-spreading transverse processes that here overarch the verte- bral canal, it being closed in beneath by the anchylosed ribs, already alluded to above as being a character of this vertebra. The lateral aspects of the centrum show a deep elliptical pit on each side, with numerous circular pneiuiiatic perforations at their bases. The hypa- pophysis is a single plate, occupying the mid-portion of the centrum. In the fourteenth vertebra the ribs, or rather the delicate pleura- pophyses, have been liberated ; the hsemal spine exhibits evidences of becoming tricorniite; the neural spine stands well above the vertebra Shufeldt: Osteology of the Limicol^e. 49 as a tuberous and solid mass, bearing sharp spines directed backwards upon its outer and posterior angles. These are the continuations of the lateral raised rims of the neural spine proper, and they project also somewhat anteriorly. This is one of the most prominent features of the fifteenth or last cervical vertebra ; it is explained, however, in the dorsal series by its evolution into the ordinary quadrate dorsal neural spine, with the forked extremities of the limiting rim at their crests. The haemal spine of the fifteenth vertebra is triplicated, having three plates, though they are not particularly prominent. In it, too, the free ribs are quite long, and are without uncinate processes. Numenius borealis shows but few structural departures in its cervical vertebrae from those I have just described for N. longirostris. The cup of the atlas does not seem to be perforated at its base ; the pleurapophyses of the thirteenth vertebra bear no striking resemblance as yet to free ribs, as they do in the Long-billed Curlew. The carotid canal is found traversing identically the same vertebrae in mid-neck. In both these Curlews there are five vertebrae in the dorsal series, all articulating freely with each other. Above, they have long osseous metapophysial filaments that stretch for the length of one or nearly two vertebrae before and behind, in the middle of this region. The tendons have also become ossified and attached, and reach far back- wards from each segment, those of the last running into the ilio-neural canals of the pelvis. The first dorsal vertebra shows two little lateral processes at the lower extremity of its haemal spine ; this plate is single and prominent in the next vertebra, but does not appear in any of the others. Each dorsal vertebra has a pair of ribs, of the most common pattern, as seen among birds. They connect with the sternum by costal ribs, and have freely articulated uncinate processes. These lat- ter are very long and narrow, reaching nearly in mid-series to the second rib to their rear. In Curlews the pelvis also supports two pair of free ribs. The first pair has all the character of the dorsals, being simply slenderer and longer. The ultimate pair is devoid of uncinate processes, and their haemapophyses only articulate along the posterior borders of the pair in front of them, so do not reach the sternum. I find a^in in my specimen of N. borealis an additional piece, or free costal rib, attached to the posterior border of this last pair of costal ribs, on either side. The number and arrangement of the vertebrae and ribs of the spinal column, as far as examined, agree very nearly with Limosa fedoa and Recunnrostra. 50 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. In Himantopus the number of cervicals and dorsals is the same as in Numenius, but there appear to be one pair less of sacral ribs. The arrangement in the Phalaropes agrees with what we find in Himantopus. In Gallinago and the Woodcocks the arrangement is different. In them there are twenty-one free vertebrae between the skull and pelvis ; but two pairs of cervical ribs (the first very minute) ; six pairs of dorsal ribs that meet the sternum through costal ones below ; two pairs of pelvic ribs, the haemapophyses of the first not reaching the sternum, and the last pair fused with the ilia and almost aborted. In Tringa maritima these latter are not present, otherwise the ar- rangement and number of the ribs and vertebrae in the cervico-dorsal part of the trunk skeleton is the same as in Gallinago. On the other hand Bartramia longicauda agrees with the Curlews in this matter, while all the Sandpipers that I have examined have these parts as they occur in T. maritima. The arrangement for other important forms will be fully presented when we come to examine the osteology of Aphriza virgata beyond. Of the Pelvis and Coccygeal Vertebrce. — Viewing the pelvis of Numenius longirostris from above, we observe that the total pre- acetabular area is about equal in extent to the post -acetabular area. The ilia are long and narrow, with serrations in their anterior borders. These bones are concaved in front, and present a dimple immediately in advance of either acetabulum on this aspect. About their anterior thirds they grasp the common neural spine of the sacrum between them, thus creating closed ilio-neural canals. Posterior to the acetabulae, these bones present convex surfaces, being drawn out behind into prominent processes that curve inwards towards each other and the median plane (see Figs. i6 and 17). They develop outstanding ledges that overhang, on either side, the anterior half of the ischiadic foramen. The sacrum does not unite with the post-acetabular part of the ilia, a very marked interspace existing between them. A double row of elliptical foramina standing among the fused lateral processes further characterize this compound bone. Upon a lateral view, the long and pointed ischium is presented to us. Posteriorly it reaches nearly as far backwards as the post-pubic style (see Fig. 17), the latter being in contact with it near its termina- tion. The pubic style does not quite close in the obturator foramen Shufeldt : Osteology of the Limicol^. 51 in any of the Curlews. Above the latter we find the ischiadic foramen, which in Numenius is very large and elliptical in outline. The lower part of the posterior border of this pelvis exhibits a triangular notch which marks the original division between the ilium and the ischium, and this latter bone from being so long and narrow, is deserving of especial notice. There appear to be fourteen vertebne fused together in the pehic sacrum of a Curlew, and the two anterior ones throw out diapophyses to the ilia, and bear the facets for the pelvic ribs. In the third ver- tebra of this series, these processes are extended almost directly up- wards, while in the fourth and fifth, again, they are horizontal, as in the first and second. From the points where the diapophyses of the fifth meet the ilia, these latter bones sweep outwards, and are fashioned to form the anterior part of the "basin of the pelvis." The tenth sacral vertebra throws out a strong pair of transverse ])rocesses that 62 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. have widely dilated extremities which articulate with iacets especially designed for them on either ilium just posterior to the acetabulum, one on either side. Foramina for the exit of the sacral nerves are double, one being placed aboi'e the other, the increase of caliber in the neural canal of the corresponding dilatation of the cord taking place in the sacral ver- tebrae from the fourth to the ninth inclusive. Although more delicately constructed, the pelvis in N. borealis agrees substantially in all particulars with the bone I have just been describ- ing for its more powerful congener, the Sickle-bill. There are ten coccygeal vertebra in N. longirostris, which count includes the triangular and rather large pygostyle. In Gallinago delicata the pelvis is inclined to be long and narrow, and its ischia behind deep and drooping. In front, the ilia meet the sacral crista for a limited distance, on the ridge anteriorly. At the side, the obturator sjiace is quite obliterated, and the obturator foramen of very small size, indeed. Broad and triangular processes, one on either hand, project backwards over the ilio-ischiac notches posteriorly. There are two vertebrae, that throw out apophysial braces opposite the acetabulfe within the pelvic basin. Including the rather small pygostyle there are eleven verlebrje in (he skeleton of the tail in this Snipe. There appear to be but ten in a specimen of the American Woodcock (/*. minor) ^ and the pelvis of this bird much resembles that bone in Gallinago, though we note that the ilia by no means meet the sacral crista anteriorly on the dorsal aspect, and the posterior ends of the ischia are not so long or pointed. Sandpipers {Tringn) and (he Phalaropes have their pelves and coccygeal vertebrx much alike. The jjelvic bones in Tiinga maritima are somewhat thin, and the interapophysial foramina of the sacrum d very open or rather large. On the whole the bone is Shufeldt : Osteology of the LiMicoLit. 63 broadish and compressed from above downwards ; the ilio-ischiac notch distinct ; and the ischia very much produced behind, being car- ried along on top of the post-pubis, on either side, as a delicate pointed spine, reaching almost to its end behind. This species has, including the pygostyle, ten coccygeal vertebrae. Other Sandpipers possess pelves much upon the same plan. In Limosaj Totanus, Heteractitis and in the Willets {^Symphemia) the pelvis comes considerably nearer the pattern as we found it above among the Curlews. I am confident that in the Limicolce the number of coccygeal vertebrae is liable to vary even within the genus. They range from seven to eleven, and may or may not be constant, although I think that the number which may fuse with the pelvic sacrum, in any Fig. 1 8. The os furcula of Ntinicnius longirostris ; a three-quarter oblique vievr from the right side ; natural size. species, has not a little to do with it. The count in immature birds would be the most accurate. Of the Shoulder- Girdle (Fig. i8). — We find in Numenius longi- rostris the usual bones allotted to this arch free and articulated in the manner as commonly seen in many of the class. The shape of the os furcula is upon the broad U -variety, and is broader in this Curlew than it is in others of the same genus, and still more so than in the Plovers. Viewing it laterally, we observe also that it is very decidedly curved upon itself, with the convexity directed forwards when in situ. When articulated, the long and pointed clavicular heads rest on either side against the inner aspects of the summits of the coracoids, while the tips extend backwards to meet the usual process furnished by each scapula. This brings the hypocleidium opposite the middle of the anterior border of the sternum, from which it is separated by quite an interspace. 54 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. The clavicles are broader and larger at their superior or coracoidal extremities, being compressed from side to side. Above, the broad surface looks outwards ; but it is gradually changed in direction as we descend to the hypocleidium, so that below it looks forwards (Fig. 1 8). The hypocleidium is of a quadrate form, rather small, and has an extension of its posterior border carried up behind on the line of the median clavicular union. In N. borealis (No. 12,595, Smithsonian Collection) the os furcula possesses all the characters I have described for the Long-billed Cur- lew. As already intimated, however, the arch of the U is not as open, the clavicular heads are not so pointed, and the hypocleidium is nearly round in form, not being so perceptibly carried up on the clavicles at their point of meeting below. Among the Plovers we found that it had the same general characteristics, and it holds the same relative position when articulated to the other bones of the shoulder-girdle. Fk;. 19. Direct anterior aspect of the left coracoid and scapula of Kumenius longirostris ; natural size, j, scapula ; r, coracoid. For the size of the bird, the furcula is large in G alii n ago, as it is in the Woodcock, but the general pattern remains the same as for the Curlews. Indeed it varies but little in form for the Limicoice generally. In the Sandpipers, as a rule, the hypocleidium is more posteriorly situated, and in Actitis this process almost comes in contact with the anterior edge of the keel of the sternum, when the bones are in situ. In some genera the hypocleidium is very small, as in Litnosa ; in others, as in the European Woodcock (6*. rusticoia), the bone is large but its limbs are slender. The hypocleidium is also small and a dis- tinct jutting facet is thrown out on the external aspects of the free clavicular ends above, for articulation with the fore part of the head of either coracoid. This is a Plover-character, and more remotely indi- Shufeldt: Osteology of the Limicol^e. 55 cates larine affinities, and relationships with birds belonging to more lowly groups, wherein this character is far more pronounced and at the same time a very common one. In the Ruff, and some other forms, the U is not so spreading, and the clavicular limbs in front of the cora- coidal articulations are considerably compressed in the transverse di- rection. And these latter, in this situation, are upon their outer aspects longitudinally concaved in Gallina^^o delicata and in Totanus flavipes. Some Sandpipers also exhibit this latter character. Taken as a whole, however, the os fur at la varies but very little in its general form among the typical limicoline birds. The co7'acoid of Numenius longirostris is comparatively a short, thick-set bone, as scarcely any true shaft exists between its humeral Fig. 20. Left scapula and coracoid of Numenius lottgirostris ; natural size. and sternal extremities. Such as it is, however, is transversely ellip- tical on section, the section being made just below the inner process at the head of the bone. The sternal extremity is broad from side to side, in which direction it is also convex anteriorly and concave behind. Below, the sternal margin is divided into two deep concavities ; the inner and broader one is completely occupied by the articular facet for the sternum. The outer is sharp and free, having attached to its upper horn a pointed and up-tilted little spine, that 1 will call the costal spine of the coracoid, it being opposite the costal border of the sternum. On the outer aspect of the bone we find the usual elliptical facet that here forms about the two thirds of the glenoid cavity (Figs. 19 and 20). The summit of the bone consists of a massive hooked process, directed forwards and inwards. Above and behind, it is impressed by a shallow concavity, while its inner surface is devoted to an elongated facet for head of clavicle. Below this on the inner side, we fmd another lamelli- form process, curving inwards, upwards, arid forwards, that at its tij) also 56 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. comes in contact with the clavicle when the bones are in situ. The posterior margin of this latter process is given up wholly to the scapula, which in life abuts against its entire length, as well as the shaft behind as far as the glenoid cavity. In Numenius borealis the coracoid is a mere miniature of the bone I have just described for the Sickle-bill. Its costal process is, how- ever, much less strongly marked, and would hardly attract special notice. The coracoids, as well as the other bones of the shoulder- girdle, are non-pneumatic in the genus Numenius^ and I believe gen- erally so among the Limico/ce. When articulated, the coracoids lean well forward as they spring from their sternal beds in the Curlews, while the scapulae make angles with them of about 90°. They do not quite meet in the median line in any of the species, but are seperated at this point by a thin com- pressed surface on top of the manubHum. The anterior extremity of the scapula in N. longirostris is decurved, broad, and compressed from above downwards. The blade of the bone, which is comparatively long, becomes thinner and slightly wider posteriorly, to be very obliquely truncate at the inner side of its posterior third. The angles thus formed are well rounded off, resulting in the production of a very ordinary form of this bone (Fig. 20). N. borealis has the hinder moiety of the scapula broader, more blade-like, the truncation more decided, and its posterior apex in the articulated skeleton overhanging the anterior margin of the ilium. In other limicoline birds the coracoids and scapulae have always much the same general appearance that those bones have in the Cur- lews. In the European Woodcock the coracoids are relatively longer than in Numenius, and they are inclined to be compressed in the an- tero-posterior direction. The costal process of one of them is con- spicuous, and the summit of the head of the bone is marked by an oval pit. This last character is also seen in Aphriza, Tringa, and in the coracoids of many other shore birds. Everything else being equal, the coracoids in Gallinago are shorter and more slender than they are in the Woodcocks. Comparatively speaking they be- come still shorter among the Sandpipers. The scapulae agree pretty well all round, varying only with the size of the species, and occa- sionally in the pattern of its posterior third, where the style of acumi- nation is apt to vary. Shufeldt : Osteology of the Limicol.«. 67 In the Avocet and in the Oyster-catchers when the shoulder-girdle is in situ, the coracoids touch each other in the median plane over the manubrial process of the sternum. The Willets {Symphemia) y Totanus flavipes and Bartramia longi- cauda all have the costal process of the coracoid quite prominently developed; \xi Limosa uropygialis {%vci\\)ci^oxi\dJCi Collection, No. 12,590) it is broad and quadrilateral in outline and but slightly curved upwards. Of the Sternum (see various figures). — This bone is greatly de- veloped in all the limicoline birds, and in L. longirostris it is unusally so, when we come to take into consideration the size of the species to which it belongs. The manubrium is for the most part a thin com- pressed median plate, with sharp edge below and thickened border above. At its base superiorly, it is contracted again to an edge, that just keeps the coracoids apart in the articulated skeleton. The cora- coidal grooves lie in the horizontal plane ; they are broad from above downwards, convex at their middles, and concave at their inner and outer limits. Anteriorly, the margin of the keel is very sharp, being carried clear up to the base of the manubrial process. It appears above, however, merely as a line on the front of that column of bone that descends in this situation, to be gradually lost as its expands on either side of the keel below within this anterior margin. The cari- nal angle in N. longirostris is rounded in front, being partly covered by the raised rim that bounds the entire length of the keel below. This latter part of the sternum is exceedingly deep, being carried backwards to the very end of the sternal body by a graceful curve (Fig. 15). Upon the costal border we observe six transverse facets for articu- lation with the haemapophyses. They are limited beyond by a low quadrate costal process — a feebly-pronounced feature in the sternum of our Curlew. So high do the sides of the sternal body itself arise that it reminds one very much of a very deep spoon with slender processes projecting from its free border in front, corresponding to the hinder border of the sternum. These processes are four in number, two on either side, making this sternum a four-notched one. Their shape and arrangement can best be seen by referring to my drawing in Fig. 14. On the superior aspect of the sternum, in the median line, and just within the anterior boundary, we find a deep pit with rounded margins. At its base, there seems to be a few minute, pneu- matic perforations. The usual muscular lines are found to be strongly 58 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. marked on the sternal body and keel in this Curlew, being carried back, in each case, nearly to its xiphoidal extremity. The chief differences presented to us in the sternum of N, borealis are a greater width of the raid-process posteriorly, and a very decided protrusion forwards of the carinal angle anteriorly. In all other respects the sternum of the Eskimo Curlew seems to be the very minia- ture of the bone I have just described for the Sickle-bill Curlew. Passing next to the sternum as we find it in Scolopax, Philohela, and Gailinago, it is to be observed that the bone has, in its general form, precisely the same pattern as it has in Numenius. The carinal angle, however, is more prominent and pointed, and the sterna of these birds lack the internal pair of xiphoidal notches. I have one sternum of a specimen of Wilson's Snipe ( Gallinago) though, that on the right hand side has a foramen at the locality where the inner notch occurs in other Limicolce. Most Sandpipers have a sternum like what we found in the Curlews, but the posterior xiphodal border, as indicated by the ends of the xiphoidal processes, lays more in a transverse line, riot being nearly as much rounded as it is in Numeriins. Limosa has the inner pair of notches very small, and they are absent again in such genera as Pavoncella and Rhyacophilus. Avocets have all four of the notches, and in them they are about of equal depth, while in Totanus they agree with Limosa. Bartrainia longicauda shows a small pair of inner notches in its sternum, with very deep outer ones. Gallinago has the manubrium very small, and in the sternum of that species the pectoral muscular lines on the sides of the carina are raised and rounded welts. This last character is wanting in Woodcocks, and in them the manubrium is larger. I believe in all the unmentioned species the sternum is four-notched, and in other respects substantially has the pattern of that bone as it is seen in Numenius. Of the Appendicular Skeleton. — All the bones of both limbs in the Limicol ^^S- 5)> ^^^ Forbes the skull of P, jacana (Coll. Sci., Memoirs, p. 224, Fig. i). In speaking of them as a family Forbes said in his paper : ** There are well-developed basipterygoid processes, which are always absent in the Rails, though of very frequent occurrence amongst the * Pluviales, * occurring in all the Charadriinae and Scolopacinae I have examined. In Parra jacana and Metopidius albinucha^ the long, narrow, slightly decurved vomer is emarginate apically, as in certain Charadriidae. In the Rallidce it is, I believe, always sharp at the point.*' **The maxillo-palatine processes are rather slender and directed backwards ; they have the form of concavo-convex lamellae, are not at all swollen, and do not unite by some way in the middle line, the vomer appearing between and (when the skull is viewed from the palatal aspect) below them." 1 Garrod, A. H., P. Z. S., Ix)nd., 1873, pp. 33-38. See page 37. J Forbes, W. A., P. Z. S., Ix)nd., 1881, pp. 639-647. 66 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. ** There is no ossified internasal septum, nor any ossification of the narial cartilages. The lacrymal is small, anchylosed with the naso- frontal region of the skull above, and with the * pars plana * below. ' * <* On the posterior aspect of the skull there are no traces of the occipital fontanelles, which are found in so many birds related to the Plovers. ' ' **The supraorbital impressions for the nasal glands, which are so conspicuous in most Plovers, the Gulls, Auks and many other birds, are absent in the Parridae.'* Forbes showed by a drawing how unlike the sternum of Metopidius albinucha was the bone as it is found in the RallidcBy and added : "In the latter group the sternum is always peculiar in tfiat the xiphoid pro- cesses exceed in length the body of the sternum, which tapers to a point posteriorly, and from which they are separated by very long and well-marked triangular notches. The carina sterni also is less well developed, and the clavicles are weaker and straighter, being less convex forwards than in the Parridae. The sternum and clavicles of Parra and Metopidius in general form, on the other hand, resemble closely the type found in some of the Pluvialine birds (