SnrFELI)|-: OsiKdr.OCV OK THK H KRODIONKS. 241 



P/fi:[t7ifis x,n<i''(ii"ni ihe i///in nieasures in length 10.9 cm. and the hand 

 in the same specimen is 9.5 cm. long. 



The essential characters of the bones of both the antihrachium and 

 pinion agree in both Cri/ara and F/ixadis, but the row of osseous 

 papillx down the shaft of ulna are almost obsolete in the latter genus, 

 while in the \\'hite Ibis they are very strongly marked — relatively 

 stronger, even, than in Tantalus. At the same time, the ulna and 

 the radius ; the carpal segments ; the various bones of manus, have in 

 general the same essential* characters in these true Ibises as we found 

 in the corresponding bones of Tantalus. This does not pretend to 

 take into consideration either the matter of size or of relative lengths. 

 These of course differ, although not so very much in the latter respect. 



The Pelvic Limb : The characters exhibited on the part of the 

 bones of this lower extremity are almost identically the same in 

 Flei^adis and Guara : and in neither genus is the femur pneumatic as 

 we found it to be in Tantali/s ; a.\\d the shaft of this bone is relatively 

 longer in those genera also, than it is in the last named genus. Other- 

 wise the characters are much the same all round, and at the distal end 

 of the femur in either Flcgadis or Guara we find the same big condyles, 

 with the dee[) " rotular channel " between them in front, and, indeed, 

 all the other principal characters described above for Tantalus. With 

 e(iual truth this applies to the bones of the leg, the tarso-metatarsus and 

 pes. In the tarso-metatarsus, however, the longitudinal groove down 

 the back of the shaft of that bone, is by no means so well marked in 

 Plegadis as it is in Tantalus. It is particularly deep in front in 

 Guam, but does not there extend more than half way down the shaft. 



In Pli'gadis guaiauna, in the same male specimen as I used above, 

 I find the tibio-tarsus to have a length of 13.7 cm. and the tarso-meta- 

 tarsus a length of 10.5 cm. These measurements are relatively very 

 different in Guara alba, for in the same bones, respectively, we find the 

 lengths to be 12.6 cm. and 8.7 cm. — showing about a centimeter's dif- 

 ference in the tibio-tarsi, but nearly two in the case of the tarso-meta- 

 tarsi. Guara is the shorter legged bird, without having lost any 

 skeletal alar extent with respect to the pectoral extremity. 



Notes on the Osteology of the Roseate Spoonbill. 

 i^Ajaja ajaja.') 

 (See Figurfs 38, 39, 40 and 41.) 

 As I have before said, my material, illustrating the osteology of this 

 16 



