324 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Color, iu spirits, dusky olive, without cross-bauds or scapular spot ; 

 centers of scales paler, thus formiug faint lougitudiual streaks; many 

 scales of back and sides, each with a dark brown spot; these irregularly 

 scattered. Body and head soiled with dark points. Dorsal, anal and 

 caudal conspicuously marked with cross-bars formed of dark dots; ven- 

 trals and anal largely dusky, similarly but more faintly barred. 



The discovery of a second species of this remarkable genus is very in- 

 teresting. 



15. PoeciUchthys barratti, (Holbrook). 25343. I. R. 



16. Lepidogobius gulosus, (Girard). 25335. I. R. 



Largest specimen 3J inches long. These are larger than the speci- 

 mens described by us (Proc. U, S. Nat. Mus., 1882, 294), from Pensacola. 

 They are duller in color than the latter. The largest ones have the 

 maxillary extending far beyond the eye, its length If in head, and the 

 dorsal spines filamentous, reaching middle of soft dorsal. The smaller 

 ones have the dorsal spines low and the mouth much smaller. 



17. Gobiosoma bosci, Lac. 25314. I. R. 



Smithsonian Institution, August 5, 1884. 



CONCERNING SOME OF THE PORMS ASSUMED BY THE PATELLA 



IN BIRDS. 



By DR. R. ^V. 8II1IFE:I.]>T, U. S. A. 



Vicq-d'Azyr saw in the i^atella a detached olecranon — the homotype 

 of the extensive process, so named — which is found at the proximal 

 extremity of the ulna in the human subject, as it is in many other ver- 

 tebrates. But what would this time-honored anatomist have to say for 

 himself were he now standing at my side, and his opinion asked as to 

 the nature of the bones of the limb which I have in my hand ? It is the 

 complete skeleton of the right lower extremity of Centrocercus, taken 

 from a bird of this species less than half grown. Several years ago I 

 figured these very bones, and they may be seen in my Osteology of the 

 TetraonidjB, plate ix, figure 67. In this limb neither the patella nor the 

 calcaneal sesamoid has yet ossified, owing to the fact that the bird from 

 which it was taken had not sufficiently advanced in age for this con- 

 dition to have come about. In the memoir in question a large epiphysis 

 was described as occupying the site of the future cnemial crest of the 

 tibia, which part of the bone never becomes a very prominent feature 

 in this bird even after it has become full grown. There seems to be no 

 particular necessity for this accretion to ossify thus separately from the 

 end of the tibia, yet it is found to be quite formidable in size, and as 

 the fowl grows cartilaginous ridges that eventually become the pro- and 

 ectocnemial processes of the tibia are seen upon its anterior face. In 



