312 SHUFELDT. [Vot. II. 
Disappointment, and proved to be a female.”? And Dr. 
Coues remarks, in defining the genus, — “ General character 
of plumage, in its pattern of coloration and seasonal changes, as 
in Tringe@. One species, a remarkable, isolated form, perhaps 
a plover, and connecting this family with the next by close 
relationships with Strepsz/as, but with hind toe as well devel- 
oped as usual in Sandpipers, and general appearance rather 
sandpiper-like than plover-like. <Aphrizine might go under 
Hematopodide next to Strepsilas ; or, perhaps better, Aphriza 
and Strepsilas might together constitute a family APHRIZIDA, 
next to, but apart from, Hematopodide.” * 
Two years after the publication of the doubts here candidly 
expressed by this eminent authority, the American Ornithologi- 
cal Union issued its official Check-List, wherein the arrangement 
proposed was adopted; and we find the Aphriz7de@ with its one 
species, A. virgata, including the sub-family Avenariine, the 
Turnstones, standing between the Plovers on the one hand, and 
the Oyster-catchers on the other,? an arrangement which proba- 
bly meets with the views of the majority of avian taxonomists of 
the present time. 
Believing that under these circumstances a full account of 
the skeleton of Aphriza will prove an acceptable contribution to 
the literature of the family, as well as a useful work to the better 
understanding of the osteology of the Lzmzcole generally, it was 
in view of this that I undertook the task. So far as my mate- 
rial at hand will admit of it, the study will be made thoroughly 
comparative, and in the end it may go to show that, for osteolog- 
ical considerations at least, the position selected in the system 
by ornithologists may be the most natural one to create for our 
Surf-bird, or a somewhat different light may be cast upon the 
problem ; in any event we are satisfied that more light in such 
matters is a thing most to be desired, and this alone morphology 
has the power of affording. 
The Skull.—When we come to submit the skulls of adult 
specimens of certain true 77izgee to moderately prolonged ma- 
ceration in water, we invariably find that the premaxillary bone 
detaches itself, as does the dentary of the mandible, leaving in 
1 Birds of America, Vol. V., pl. 228. 
2 Coues, E, Key to North American Birds, 2d. ed., p. 605. 1884. 
8 Check-List of North American Birds, pp. 160-166. New York, 1886. 
