No. 2.] APHRIZA VIRGATA. 335 
Having now briefly passed over the more salient characters 
to be found in the skeletons of Aphriza, Arenaria, Hematopus, 
and several representative Plovers and Sandpipers, we are, I 
think, in a position to offer our conclusions upon the affinities 
of the Surf-bird, in so far as they seem to be indicated through 
this study of its osteology. 
CONCLUSIONS. 
Taking the skull as the part of the skeleton, I would invite 
attention to the peculiar form of the superior osseous mandible 
in Hematopus,; and in the cranium of the same bird to the deeply 
sculpt, supra-orbital, glandular depressions ; to its bold, outstand- 
ing lacrymal bones, and their mode of meeting the pars plana on 
either side; to its vomer, which is forked at its anterior ex- 
tremity ; to the absence of the supra-occipital foramina; to the 
complete coalescence of the maxillo-palatine, with the palatine 
of the same side; to its cranial foramina in front for exit of 
the first and second pair, they being completely surrounded by 
bone; and, finally, to the subelliptical outline of its foramen 
magnum. All these points, and many minor ones in its skull, 
are totally different in Aphriza, and alone are sufficient to war- 
rant us in at least drawing strong lines of family distinc- 
tion between these two types. Equally clear is the differ- 
ence between the skull in Hematopus and Charadrius, but 
when we come to compare it in the former with the skull 
of Avenaria, a faint indication of affinity may be made out, 
which indication is principally seen in the Turnstone, having 
similarly formed nasals; feebly developed supra-orbital glandu- 
lar depressions ; a somewhat similar superior osseous mandible ; 
and, lastly, in that its maxillo-palatines unite along their entire 
lower margins with the corresponding palatine on either side 
below them. 
The differences presented to us, however, in the skulls of 
Hematopus and Arenaria, amount at least to family distinction. 
So, too, when we come to compare the skulls of Avenaria and 
Charadrius, they are very different, and undoubtedly belong to 
representatives of distinct families. 
Comparing next the skull of a Turnstone with that of the 
Surf-bird, we are at first struca with the radical differences 
