NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 189 



articular faces have the usual contour ; all being grooved perpen- 

 dicularly, and the lateral ones showing that ordinary but highly 

 interesting kind of obliquity, by means of which the toes, when 

 flexed, are brought side by side, and made to diverge from each 

 other when extended. 



In the dried bone, no special surface for attachment of the ac- 

 cessory metatarsal can be recognized. The first digit is extremely 

 small, completely lateral, closely joined with the base of the sec- 

 ond toe, and appears in its usual position during life to be turned 

 more or less completely forward. Technically, it may be consid- 

 ered "elevated," though the disparity in size between these and 

 the other toes is so great that it is difficult to say h,ow much, if 

 any, above the plane of the rest it is really situated. It appears 

 to have little or no functional importance, although all its bones 

 are present and morphically perfect. The accessory metatarsal is 

 a straight, slender bone, about half an inch long, irregularly flat- 

 tened ; the proximal phalanx is similar but still smaller, while the 

 distal phalanx is a mere spiculum about a fourth of an inch long. 



The other three toes are of ordinary size ; the middle one exceeds 

 trie outer a little, while the inner is considerably the shortest; all 

 show the normal number of phalanges (3-4-5, from 2d to 4th). 

 The phalanges of each toe, as usual, decrease in length and bulk 

 from first to last, and the corresponding ones of different toes 

 bear to each other the usual relative size. The distal phalanges 

 have enlarged processes for the support of the heavy, blunt claws, 

 and these processes are deeply grooved on each side. 



III. ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE 



FAMILY. 



It is well known that the penguins are entirely confined to the 

 southern hemisphere, and their northern limit of dispersion is 

 probably ascertained with approximate accuracy. Their nearest 

 approach to the equator seems to be on the coast of South 

 America. According to Meyen, the S. "humboldtii" (demersus) 

 is abundant in the harbor of Callao, Peru, lat. 10 S. ; while this 

 Spheniscus reaches on the other side of this continent to Southern 

 Brazil, and Ascension Island, lat. 8 S. (Licht.). Dr. Schlegel 

 places the African limit at 25, and the Australian at 35 S., 

 properly ignoring the accounts of Sonnerat, whose representations 



