496 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OF [1898. 



near akin as many seem to think. Differences of a very marked 

 character distinguish their skulls, their vertebral columns, their 

 sterna, their pelves, and their limb bones. Still there is a greater 

 similarity between the skeleton of a Loon and a Grebe than there 

 is between a Loon and any representative of the Alcas. About this 

 fact I have satisfied myself after having compared, character for 

 character, as they occur in the skeletons of several species of Loons 

 with the corresponding ones in a number of Grebes and both with 

 all the Auks found in our United States avifauna, save Cerorhinca. 

 D'Arcy Thompson has shown, beyond all question in my opinion, 

 in his paper, On the systematic position of Hesperornis, the affinity 

 of our modern or existing Colymbi with that ancient diver. It 

 would seem then that the time cannot be far distant when naturalists 

 can at least agree upon the relations that these birds bear to each 

 other and to kindred groups. To express this relationship, Loons 

 and Grebes should be associated in one and the same suborder, and 

 a superfamily created for either assemblage. In a linear classifica- 

 tion, I believe their nearest relatives are the Penguins upon the one 

 hand and the Auks upon the other, with the Heliornithidse in the 

 next place as a related branch, and one more nearly so than the 

 Laridse or the Proeellaridre. In part, this is believed by Dr. Stej- 

 neger, to be the relationship who, however, widely dissociates the Hes- 

 perornithidse. While this last relationship is fully appreciated 

 by Professor Fiirbriuger, that eminent authority nevertheless ap- 

 parently, sees no special affinity, between an Auk and a Loon or 

 Grebe, and so very widely separates the Colymbo-Podicipites and 

 the Laro-Limicolae assemblages. 



Passing: next to the anserine fowls, one would think that bv this 

 time there would be more or less unanimity of opinion among 

 systematic ornithologists as to the affinities and position of such a 

 homogeneous group. As a family, the existing Anatidse can but 

 contain the Mergansers, Ducks, Geese and Swans, while the outliers, 

 either existing or extinct, are not as a rule very puzzling forms. 

 The anserine affinities of Palamedea are now pretty generally re- 

 cognized ; and there can be no question as to the relationships of 

 the extinct Cnemiornis or Cereopsis. Moreover the relation borne 

 by the Flamingoes to the Anseres has been known for a good many 

 years past, and yet notwithstanding all this we find almost as much 

 diversity of opinion among the classifiers of birds as to where this 

 very natural group belongs, as has already been pointed out in 



