Shitki.d'I' : ( )sii',()i,()(;\- ok iiii I .iMicor./K. 



27 



with the sternum liy the nic;iiis of costal ribs or hieniaijophyses. The 

 neural spine is well pronounced in the first (fifteenth) of this series, 

 but in the reniainini; I'wc it is a lofty median crest, each interlocking, 

 before and behind, at the angles at the summit, in a schindylesial 

 articulation. Transverse processes stand out horizontally from these 

 vertebn^i, and needle-like metapoi)hyses connect them in several in- 

 stances, though they do not (juite meet in every case. The fifteenth 

 and sixteenth vertebrae retain the hypapophysial ])rocesses, being triple 

 in the former, while in the latter it becomes single again, long and tri- 

 angular. In the remaining four it is entirely absent. The vertebral 

 ribs are ([uite slender, and all supi)ort long unciform j)rocesses, which in 

 the adult articulate with their posterior borders ; the costal ribs become 

 longer as we proceed backward in the direction of the pelvis. 



There are twelve vertebrae in the pelvic sacrum, and from this com- 

 pound bone, during ordinary maceration, the true bones of the pelvic 



Fig. 5. Pelvis of Charadritis domi}iicHS, viewed from above ; natural size (Speci- 

 men No. 16,715 ; Collection of the Smithsonian Institution. Collected by the Point 

 Barrow Expedition of 1882 in Alaska). By the author. 



Fig. 6. .Sternum of Charadriiis doiuinicus, pectoral aspect ; natural size. By the 

 author, from the same specimen which furnished the pelvis for Fig. 5. 



girdle are easily detached. The first four sacral vertebrae throw out 

 their lateral processes as abutments against the nether sides of the 

 spreading ilia ; and above, these last-named bones meet the sacral crista 

 but not each other across it. There is a pair of slender pelvic ribs, 

 but their hjemapophyses fail to reach the costal borders of the sternum. 

 They articulate with the hinder borders of the last pair that do. The 



