XIV, 1 Shufeldt: Osteology of Porphyrio 97 
The head of the femur is very small in proportion to the size 
of the remainder of the bone; and the pit for the ligamentum 
teres is extensive and rather deep. Rising somewhat above the 
summit of the bone, the trochanter major is very broad across 
its outer aspect. While bowed to the front, the shaft of the 
bone has a curious though very slight turn in it about its middle 
(fig. 8). Distally, the condyles are large, and the fibular notch 
in the outer one is notably deep. As a matter of fact, the 
skeleton of the pelvic limb of Porphyrio is not only big-boned 
for the size of the bird; but the individual bones are long, with 
conspicuous characters at their extremities. No patella is to 
be seen in this limb, and this is also true of the coots and 
gallinules. 
Porphyrio has a very long tibiotarsus as well as tarsometa- 
tarsus, and this is also true of the joints of pes (Plate IT, fig. 8). 
In the first-named segment of the skeleton of the leg, the cnemial 
process is rather conspicuously developed, it being confined to 
the upper part of the shaft. The “ectocnemial projection” ter- 
minates in a little hook at its lower angle. Fulica has the en- 
tocnemial process wonderfully developed; it not only rises well 
above the summit of the shaft of the bone, but also projects far 
forward and to some extent downward. Often the fascia at- 
tached to its inferior border ossifies to some considerable extent, 
especially the outer margin of it, running into the antero-inner 
surface of the shaft at a point below the “fibular ridge” on the 
other side. The “ridge” referred to is well developed in all of 
these paludicoline birds, distinctly so in Porphyrio, while in it, 
as in all of them, the fibula is very weak, and partly ligamentous 
below its articulation with this projection. At the distal end of 
the tibiotarsus, on the anterior aspect, we may note above the 
condyles the usual ossified tendinal bridge crossing the longitud- 
inal groove in that locality. eb 
Taking the unusual development of the proximal extremity 
of this bone into consideration, it is worthy of note that the 
condylar end is, relatively speaking, not so markedly enlarged; 
that is, the condyles, though of good size, are not strikingly 
bulky. As is usually the case, the outer one is the larger and 
the rounder in outline, and, anteriorly, the thicker in its trans- 
verse diameter. To some extent they project beyond the surface 
of the shaft, posteriorly, thus continuing the intercondylar valley 
in that locality. 
Hypotarsus of the tarsometatarsus is well developed, but in 
Porphyrio appears to be neither grooved nor pierced for the 
passage of tendons. It is both once-grooved and once-pierced 
