No. 2.] APHRIZA VIRGATA. 3209 
genus, Ryacophilus, be restored for it (at the present writing it is 
a subgenus of Zofanus). But the majority of 77zzgee, as for 
example, all the true representatives of the genus Z7yinga, have 
the “four-notched”’ sternum, and the fact that Actt7s and Rya- 
cophtlus have each only a pair of notches, may be of more signi- 
ficance in so far as the true affinity of those two species is 
concerned, than some of their external characters (that are so 
very subject to change from minor causes), but which have alone 
been relied upon thus far by the systematist, to classify them. 
Finally, then, the fact may be broadly stated, that with respect 
to the sterna of Aphriza and Arenaria, they are to all intents 
and purposes the miniatures of that bone as we find it in Hema- 
topus bachmani ,; and although this is very interesting, the cir- 
cumstance goes to prove, in the light of other skeletal characters 
of these species, we would utterly fail were we to rely upon this 
bone alone as any indication of family, or much less, generic, 
affinities. 
All the sterna that the writer has examined from the skele- 
tons of North American Lzmzco/e were non-pneumatic bones, 
and if it is ever found to be otherwise, we must believe that it 
is the exception. Ina specimen of 77ixga minutilla in my col- 
lection, the bone is so thin that a large perforation occurs on 
either side of the keel in the sternal body, and one through the 
keel itself, high up in front. 
Speaking of the pneumaticity of the skeletons of the several 
species we are here considering, I am strongly inclined to be- 
lieve that the skull is the only part in any of them where air 
gains access to the interior of the bones, and as a rule to no 
_ very great extent, comparatively, there. 
Turning our attention next to the shoulder girdle (Figs. 11, 
16, and 17) in Aphriza virgata, we meet with a scapula having 
much the form that that bone assumes among the Shore Birds, 
generally, being shaped a good deal like the blade of a miniature 
cimeter, and when zz sz¢u in the articulated skeleton bearing the 
usual relations to the clavicle and coracoid of its own side. A 
coracoid is conspicuous for its short, sub-cylindrical shaft ; its 
head being tuberous and much crooked over towards the median 
plane, while the sternal extremity of the bone is not only thick- 
ened from before, backwards, but much expanded lateral-wise, 
showing at its outer angle a prominent lamelliform process, com- 
