l.SS 



Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



corax also agrees in this respect with these birds in the main, it differs 

 in having the inner angle of the expanded sternal end of the right 

 coracoid truncate, instead of being drawn out into a point as the fellow 

 of the opposite side is. This is due to the fact that the groove on the 

 sternum has that shape in the Yellow-Crowned Night Heron. 



The scaf>/tl(i among the Ardeiiue, generally, is a long narrow bone, 

 with but a slight curvature from head to distal extremity. This latter 

 is simply rounded off in A. herodias and in the Snowy Heron, but in- 

 clined to be slightly truncate in Nycticorax. In the Great Blue Heron 

 the head of the scapula is compressed from above, downwards, and 

 much expanded in a transverse direction. Mesially it curls up a little 

 to preserve the contour of the "tendinal canal," while on the opposite 



Fig. 14. Right lateral view of the pelvis of Ardea herodias. Natural size from the 

 specimen. 



side, it supports an oblique, elliptical articular facet, constituting one- 

 third of the glenoid cavity. 



Among the Herons the furcula, or the united clavicles, is a very 

 interesting bone in one or two particulars. 



In figures 11 and 12 I present two views of this part of the pectoral 

 arch of A. herodias, taken from a specimen in my own collection, it 

 being the same individual from which all the drawings were made 

 which illustrate this species. I would do this, even if a hundred skeletons 

 of the same species were at my command, as it is better in many re- 

 spects. One of the chief reasons is that each skeleton, even among 

 birds, has its own individuality, and ought to furnish all the figures if 

 possible in any type monographed. The head of the clavicle in this 

 Heron is tuberous, rather thickened, and evenly rounded off at its end. 

 When articulated with the other bones of the arch, its superior border. 



