68 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



In the first jjlace they are more strictly acjuatic than are most of the 

 Plovers, and many of the latter have but three toes (the anterior ones). 

 The Jacanas ha\'e a two-notched sternum, .so has RliyacopJiihts solita- 

 riiis and Actifis niacularia and i)robal)ly other Tn'/igcc. In all the typi- 

 cal Plovers, I believe, the sternum is four-notched. Jacanas have a 

 habit occasionally, when standing, of stretching the wings upwards to 

 their full extent above the back, so that they nearly or tjuite touch each 

 other. Rlixacopliiliis and other Sandpipers have the same peculiar 

 habit, and it is not practiced by the Plovers. The skull of a Jacana 

 is tpiite as much tringine as it is pluvialine, as is also its pectoral arch, 

 and some other bones of its skeleton. 



In the specimen I examined (^Jacana i:;y//i/iosfo//ia ) I found the 

 postero-external angles of the palatines rounded ; and the vomer 

 anchylosed with those bones. The basipterygoid processes were pres- 

 ent. The vomer long, slender and rounded anteriorly. Two vacui- 

 ties occupied the interorbital septum. Maxillo-i)alatines were small, 

 elongated, not swollen, and nearly hidden by the praepalatines. De- 

 scending process of lacrymal fused with pars plana, and the bone 

 anchylosed with the frontal and nasal above. Schizorhinal in type, it 

 likewise possessed twenty-one vertebra between the .skull and pelvis 

 (Rails, as a rule, have twenty-two). Morphologically, both sternum 

 and pelvis are tringo-ralline, with the os furciila tringine in type. As 

 to the ribs, I found five hsemapophyses that reached the sternum, and 

 one pair that did not do so. There are two pairs of cervical ribs 

 which articulated with their vertebra2. A patella is present which 

 sesamoid is absent in true Rallidce. 



Synopsis of the Principal Osteological Characters of 



THE LiMICOL.E. 



1. Excepting certain parts of the skull, the entire skeleton is non- 

 pneumatic. 



2. Bones of the flrcial region (premaxilla) may be shortened 

 (pluvialine types) or lengthened (scolopacine types) ; and in certain 

 of the latter it may l)e either recurved or deflected to one side. 



3. The sphenoidal rostrum is elongated and slender, and the 

 mesethmoid projects forward beneath the premaxilla. 



4. All the forms are of the schizognathous type, as well as schizo- 

 rhinal. 



5. The vomer may be small and spiculiform {^Fhi/o/uPa), or long 



