1901.] SHUFELDT — OSTEOLOGY OF THE CUCKOOS. 45 



Subfamily Cuculin^e. 

 Coccyzus 7?iinor. 

 Coccyzus minor maynardi. 

 Coccyzus americanus, 

 Coccyzus americanus occidentalism 

 Coccyzus erythropthalmus. 



i. Superior osseous mandible but slightly longer than the 

 remainder of the skull. Broad at base, and somewhat com- 

 pressed vertically ; decurved more than in Geococcyx and with the 

 culmen similarly rounded. 



2. External narial apertures as in Centropodince, but the over- 

 lying lamina not so extensive, and usually leaves two openings upon 

 either side of this mandible, one anterior to the other. 



3. Frontral region somewhat narrow and concaved. 



4. Temporal fossae broad vertically, somewhat shallow and sepa- 

 rated posteriorly only by the rather low supraoccipital prominence. 



5. Postfrontal and squamosal processes much reduced. Quadrate 

 as in Geococcyx. Quadrato-jugal bar slender. Pars plana essentially 

 agrees with the corresponding part in Geococcyx, while the inter- 

 orbital septum is more nearly entire than it is either in the Croto- 

 phas,'ince or Centropodince. 



6. Lacrymal not large, its descending process rather short, spicu- 

 liform, and turned outward. (Reminds us of the lacrymal bone in 

 some of our Gallince). 



7. Basipterygoid processes completely aborted. Pterygoids 

 straight, relatively short, superior border in each raised and sharp. 



8. Vomer rudimentary, or may be altogether absent. Palatines 

 as in the Centropodince, while the maxillo-palatines agree with both 

 the Ground Cuckoos and the Anis. 



9. Mandible practically as in Geococcyx; sides shallow and the 

 ramal vacuity large. 



10. Structurally, the hyoidean apparatus essentially agrees with 

 what we find in Crotophaga (but the tracheal ossifications do not 

 seem to correspond in this subfamily with what we find in the Cen- 

 tropodince) . 



11. Eighteen free vertebrae between skull and pelvis; cervical 

 ribs on the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth. Four pairs of dorsal 

 ribs, all of which connect with the sternum by their haemapophyses. 



