310 



OSTEOLOGY OF TUBINARES AND STEGAXOPODES. 



ornithotomist . Garrod's paper on the "Anatomy of Plotus anhinga* 

 is especially worthy of mention in this connection, and contaius a great 

 deal of mutter of value relating to the structure of the Darters and 

 Cormorants. (P. Z. S., 1876, pp. 335-345.) 

 The Cormorants have a median groove in the superior aspect of their 

 fused palatines for (he rostrum of the sphe- 

 noid. Upon Parker's authority, too, we find 

 that in the "Cormorants an oniony ossicle lies 

 on the commencement of the zygoma. It is 

 large in P. carbo and small in V. graculus." 



For additional points in the skeleton of the 

 Phalacrocoracidce I must refer the reader to 

 my article in "Science" referred to above (Vol. 

 ii, No. 41, p. G40), where figures of the ster- 

 num, shoulder-girdle, and other parts of the 

 skeleton may be seen. 



OBSERVATIONS UPON A SKULL OF PELECA- 

 NUS FUSCUS. 



Twenty-four years ago 1 collected on the 

 north side of Indian Cay a fine old male of 

 this species of Pelican. Its skull was duly 

 saved and now forms a part of my private 

 cabinet. From it I made the drawing that 

 accompanies these remarks. Huxley, in his 

 Classification of Birds ( P. Z. S., 1867), presents 

 us with an excellent under view of the skull 

 of Pclecanus onocr&talus, but the side view of 

 the same is very indifferently drawn and a lit- 

 tle misleading in some of the minor details. 



Measuring from the transverse craniofacial 

 groove we find tlie osseous superior mandible 

 in this specimen to be somewhat less than 

 four times as long as the remaining part of 

 the skull. A vertical section made through 

 the middle of the posterior third of t ins mandi- 

 ble at right angles to its long axis gives an 

 elliptical figure, with the minor axis on the 

 horizontal plane. The anterior two thirds has 

 a sharp lateral edge, while the extremity is 

 armed with a powerful decurved hook. About 

 half of the fore part of this enormous beak 

 is compressed from above downward, a compression that is accompa- 

 nied by a gradual widening of t he bone to near tin 1 end, when 1 it slopes 

 in toward the hook in the median line. 



The maxillo palatines constitute a great spongy mass that tills up a 



I i 39. Lefl l;itcial view of tlio 

 skill] of Phalacrocorax urile; life 

 size. l'..\ tin' author, from a Bpi ■< i- 

 men in tbe Smithsonian Institu 

 tion. st a . the occipital 



