ShUFELDT : O.STEULOC;V OK THE Ll.MlCOL.'E. 21 



l)one has much the form of the humerus as seen in Charadriiis domin- 

 tctis. The radius and ulna present nothing very peculiar, and the 

 latter is but little bowed along the continuity of its shaft. The row 

 of nibs for the secondary tjuill-butts are present. 



The distal phalanx of the index digit is long and slender, and the 

 expanded portion of the proximal generally exhibits two small perfor- 

 ations, as in the Laridcc. The index and niedius metacarpal are nearly 

 straight, the latter being very slender. 



Passing to the/f'/rvV //////' wc fmd the short, straight /(•;/////- to j^ossess 

 a length just equal to half the length of the tibio-tarsus. Its head is 

 sessile on the shaft, and the trochanter is moderately raised above 

 the articular summit of the bone. In the tibio-tarsus the cnemial crests 

 are conspicuous, especially the inner one, and in fact they almost exactly 

 resemble in form those ])arts in miniature, as we observe them in a Ful- 

 mar. The lower part of the Jihula is of hair-like dimensions. The 

 h\potarsial process of the tarso-nictatarsus is small and subcubical in 

 form, being both pierced and grooved for tendons. The accessory 

 metatarsal is suspended above the distal trochlear, and the hallux digit 

 is small and feeble. As to the other toes, their basal joints are the 

 longest in any case, and they gradually diminish in length as we proceed 

 in the direction of the terminal ungules. 



Comparative Osteology of tlie Plovers. 



(Skeletons of representative species of the genera Vauellus, Charadrius 

 and ^-Egia litis examined. ) 



A number of years ago in my article on the osteology of .-E. mon- 

 tana, a bird at that time designated by American ornithologists as 

 Fodasocys /uoiitaiius, I remarked that "there has always been something 

 strikingly columbine to me in the outward appearance of a plover's 

 head — a similitude that is by no means shaken when we come to ex- 

 amine the prepared skull, in which so many of the bones are arranged 

 as they are in the cranium and face of a pigeon." The skull of -i5". 

 niontana is extremely light and fragile, due to the access of air to 

 numerous cells in certain parts of its interior, and likewise to a gener- 

 ous supply of diploe in other localities. I find in the chick of the 

 plover only a few days old, that the i)remaxilla2 have thoroughly coa- 

 lesced along the culmen of the beak for its outer or anterior third, but 

 the suture dividing them jiosteriorly along the nasal process of these 



