Novi, | NORTH AMERICAN PASSERES. IOI 
and J/ctertde@, it will be remembered by those familiar with the 
writer’s memoirs, that they were all treated in a contribution 
to the Journal of Anatomy not long ago,! and their affinities 
pointed out in detail. 
Finally, we arrive at the Family A/audide, the first one pre- 
sented at the commencement of the sub-order Oscines in the 
A. O. U. Check-List, containing as it does the Larks. Here we 
have two genera, A/auda for the single species A. arvenis, the 
skeleton of which I have not before me; and Ofocoris, with 
eight species. A number of years ago I published a very full 
account of the skeleton of Evemophila alpestris, in these days 
more properly described as Ofocorts alpestris arentcola, and 
having thus given a complete description of all the details of 
structure in the osseous system of that species, it will be 
unnecessary to essay further in that direction.? It is very diffi- 
cult to tell where to place Ofocoris ; I have carefully compared 
its skull with such genera as Anthus, Molothrus, Zonotrichia, 
and a variety of others of the Aringillide, with Turdide and 
Tits, and a host of Passeres,; but passerine as it is itself, it 
presents cranial characters which seem to be peculiar to its 
genus. Not the least curious of these is the fusing together, 
in the adult, of the ends of the sphenotic and squamosal pro- 
cesses, leaving only an elliptical foramen between them, and the 
latter process being very broad in the transverse direction. 
Some Gadling show this feature in their skulls —a fact which we 
mention in order to explain what is meant. Newton has said, 
“There is, however, abundant evidence of the susceptibility of the 
Alaudine structure to modification from external circumstances 
—in other words, of its plasticity; and perhaps no homogene- 
ous group of Passeres could be found which better displays the 
working of ‘natural selection.’’’ And again, in the same place, 
“Almost every character that among passerine birds is counted 
most sure is in the Larks found subject to modification. The 
form of the bill varies in an extraordinary degree”’ ; from which 
1 SHUFELDT, R. W., “On the skeleton in the genus Sturnella, with osteological 
notes upon other North American /cferide, and the Corvide.” Four. of Anat. and 
Phys., Vol. XXII. (n.s. Vol. II.), pp. 309-350. London, April, 1888. Plates XIV., 
XV. 
2 SHUFELDT, R. W., ‘‘ Osteology of Eremophila alpestris.” Bull. U. S. Geol. 
and Geog. Surv. of the Terr. Dept. of the Interior. Vol. VI., No. 1. Washington, 
D.C., Feb. 11, 1881. 
