PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 329 



already noted by the author just referred to, that the great pro- and 

 ecto-cnemial ridges we observe on the anterior aspect of the rotular 

 crest, and continued down the shaft of the tibia, may be present and 

 highly developed without an extension of that crest above the proximal 

 surface of the bone. A beautiful example of this I quite recently saw 

 upon an exceptionally fine specimen of the fossil Cnemiornis, received 

 a few weeks ago at the Smithsonian Institution. A bird that aftbrds 

 another very interesting condition of these parts, having a very small 

 patella and a large procnemial process, though differing very much from 



Fig. 5. — Fulmarus rodgersii, uat. size; lettering the same. (No. 12612 Smithsonian collection). 

 Showing the patella P in its normal position in this bird. Hy the author. 



Colymhifs, is Fulmarus rodgersii^ a good skeleton of which I find in the 

 collection brought from Alaska by Mr. H. W. Elliott. After what has 

 been written, no special description will be necessary of the drawing here 

 presented, showing these bones in Eogers' Fulmar. Some of the great 



Fig. 6. — Hegperornis regalis. J nat. size. Letters as before. (After Marsh.) 



extinct divers found in the Cretaceous beds of this country- had a very 

 big patella. For examjde, we find "the patella in Hesperornis regalis is 

 a large bone, and entirelj^ distinct from the tibia. In its general propor- 



