: SHUFELDT— OSTEOLOGY OF THE CUCKOOS. [Jan. 4, 



Treasurer. 



Horace Jayne. 



Curators. 



J. Cheston Morris, Benjamin Smith Lyman, Henry Pettit. 



Councillors to serve for three years. 



Eichard Wood, Henry Carey Baird, Samuel G. Dixon, 

 Joseph G. Eosengarten. 



The Society was adjourned by the presiding officer. 



THE OSTEOLOGY OF THE CUCKOOS. 

 [Coccyges.] 



(Plates I and II.) 

 BY DR. R. W. SHUFELDT. 



{Bead January 4, 1901.) 



Introduction. 



My first paper evidencing any special interest in the structure of 

 the Cuckoos was published in The Ibis, of London, July 1, 1885 

 (pp. 286-288), and was entitled "On the Coloration in Life of the 

 Naked Skin-tracts on the Head of Geococcyx californianus," being 

 illustrated with a fine colored figure of the head of the Californian 

 Road-runner, natural size. In this paper the osteology of Geococ- 

 cyx was not touched upon, it merely calling attention for the first 

 time in science to the brilliant scarlet coloration of the naked areas 

 on the back of the head of the bird in question. This paper was, 

 however, soon followed by another in January, 1886, in which a 

 complete account of the skeleton of Geococcyx californianus was 

 given, illustrated by three plates, devoted to figuring the skull from 

 three or four points of view, and also all the other bones in the 

 osseous system of this species. It was published in 1 lie Journal of 

 Anatomy and Physiology (London and Edinburgh, Vol. xx, Part 

 II, pp. 244-266, Pis. VII-IX). As in the case of a few others, 

 this memoir is referred to again below, and is indeed, without its 

 figures, substantially reproduced in the present work, after having 

 been thoroughly revised (and augmented slightly) by myself. Al- 



