20 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



quite ridgelike in the Californian condor, parallel and in the vertical 

 plane, while the line forming them above, is a long, shallow arc, 

 with its concavity towards the cerebellar prominence ; this is also 

 the case in C a t h a r i s t a u r n b u . In C a t h a r t e s a . 

 s e p t e n t r i o n a 1 i s the side lines are curved outward, while the 

 superior line is broken at its middle point, which point is carried 

 down on the cerebellar prominence for about one third of its dis- 

 tance from above, in the median plane, where the extremities of the 

 broken line join it at a gentle curve on either side. This is nearly 

 the pattern .as seen in G)'parchus papa, but in Sarco- 

 r h a m p h u s g r y p h u s we again find it as I described it for 

 the condor of California, only we have in the former a slight in- 

 clination for the point to come down on the prominence. 



If we remove a section of the vault of the cranium, and this has 

 been done here in the case of Cathartes a. septen- 

 trional i s and C a t h a r i s it a u r u b u , we find that the 

 internal and external tables are very thin, and that a fair 

 amount of diploic tissue is placed between them, especially toward 

 the occipital region, where, as we approach the locality of the in- 

 ternal ear on either side, it becomes several millimeters thick, the 

 cellular network being more or less coarse in texture. The internal 

 walls of the brain case as thus exposed are smooth, being traversed 

 only here and there by vascular tracts and grooves for the exit of 

 certain nerve branches. The fossae designed for the reception of 

 the different cephalic lobes are moderately well separated, the one 

 that contains the epencephalon being the most distinct, aided as it 

 is by the internal concavity of that external feature of the occiput 

 that we described above as the cerebellar prominence ; the usual 

 transverse groovelets do not mark this section here on the internal 

 table. This distinctness is further assisted by thin, horizontal off- 

 shoots from the united bones of the ear cell. The internal auditory 

 foramen is unusually large and predicts a correspondingly good size 

 for this important nervous branch ; the same remark applies to the 

 trigeminal and its orifice of exit. Remarkable depth and space is 

 allotted to the fossa for the lodgment of the hypopophysis, the 

 " sella turcica," as this receptacle is called in anthropotomy, its pos- 

 terior wall being as high as the anterior, and the cavity having a 

 depth of three or four millimeters or more. In our specimen of 

 C a t h a r i s t a u r u b u , an elliptical perforation exists in its 

 hinder wall near the bottom ; the carotids seem to invariably pierce 

 its base within, by two openings. Immediately above and anterior 

 to it we find the optic and other nervous foramina. Passing to the 



