314 SHUFELDT. [Vor t8 
other difference, and that is, in @matopus the anterior extrem- 
ities of the palatines fuse across the median interspace much 
further back than they do in the Turnstone, but essentially, as 
I say, the plan of these parts in the two birds in question is the 
same, and quite different from the corresponding structure in 
Aphriza. Plovers in this particular seem to stand between the 
Surf-bird and Avenaria. 
Taking next these several skulls upon their superior aspects, 
and comparing them with the same view in JA. virgata (Fig. 1), 
we find that the latter bird again agrees with such a Sandpiper 
as Actitis macularia, or with such a species as 7. mzinutzlla. 
The cranium being very narrow in the frontal region between 
the superior orbital margins, while the vault of the brain-case is 
externally rounded, smooth, and ample, being occasionally 
marked in some of the Sandpipers by a median, longitudinal 
furrow. 
In both, the lacrymals jut out about in the same proportion, 
and much in the same manner, as they do in a Turnstone. 
Aphriza and Actitis show scarcely any tilting upwards of the 
superior orbital peripheries, a feature so very conspicuous in 
Charadrius squatarola; \ess so in Hematopus, and again quite 
absent in Avenaria. 
Oyster-catchers exhibit their strong larine affinities in their 
prominent out-jutting lacrymal bones, and still more in their 
deep and sharply defined glandular fossze over the orbital roofs. 
These latter depressions are but fairly well marked in Turn- 
stones, while in A. virgata, again agreeing in this respect with 
most, if not all true 77zzge@, they are entirely absent. 
Passing to the basi-posterior aspect of the cranium, the Surf- 
bird is seen to possess, in common with all North American 
Limicole, a well-marked supraoccipital prominence, which shows 
one on either side, the supraoccipital vacuities being larger in 
this species than they chance to be in any Sandpiper at my 
hand. Plovers have them next largest, they being very minute 
in Avenaria, and not present in any of the skulls of the genus 
Hematopus before me, although these latter have large supra- 
occipital prominences. 
In this last-named genus, too, the “occipital area”’ is sharply 
defined by a very strong and raised crest, of a subcircular out- 
line. This crest is very much mellowed down in Charadrius ; 
