88 ON PALLAS' CORMORANT STEJNEGER AND LUCAS. 



kinds of water birds. Among the latter a particularly large pelvis of a 

 Plialacrocorax at once attracted my attention, and as 1 bad bad Pallas's 

 Cormorant on my mind since I started from Washington 1 was not slow 

 in concluding that I had to do with the bones of this bird. Had I had 

 time to dig out the whole deposit I should probably have obtained more 

 bones, but with the above suspicion I did as much digging and collected 

 as many bird bones as the circumstances would allow. 



A full account of this find is given by Mr. Lucas in his report which 

 forms the remaining portion of this article. 



B.— DESCRIPTION OF SOME BONES OF PALLAS' CORMORANT (PHALACRO- 

 i ( )RA X PERSPICILLA TUS. ) 



BY 



Frederic A. Lucas, 

 Assistant Curator of the Department of Comparative Anatomy. 



Dr. Stejneger has very kindly placed in my hands for description the 

 bones above mentioned. They are as follows: 



Rostral portion of cranium in advance Right fused metacarpals, very iuiper- 



of the frontonasal hinge, with attached j feet, 

 palatines. Three pelves, lacking pubic bones. 



Lower mandible. 



Right ramus of lower mandible. 



Two nearly complete sterna. 



Right coracoid. 



Right humerus. 



Left humerus of another individual. 



Right ulna. 



Right fused metacarpals. 



Left femur. 



Two left tibiae. 



Right tibia. 



Two left tarsi. 



Second cervical verlebra. 



Third cervical vertebra. 



Ninth (?) cervic.il vertebra. 



The more important of these are figured on the accompanying plates, 

 all figures being of natural size, and drawn by the author. 



The bones, although stained, are in a good state of preservation, being 

 but slightly weathered, and all are from thoroughly adult iudividuals. 



For the better aud briefer description of these bones they have been 

 compared with those of an adult Plialacrocorax carbo, and the oppor- 

 tunity has been taken to test, to some extent, the value of the sub- 

 genera Urile and Phalacrocorax, by comparing at the same time the 

 corresponding bones of P. urile and P. tlilophus. 



The former bird is, for the species, large and the latter somewhat 

 undersized, although adult. 



The rostrum of perspicillatiis is nearly as long as in carbo, but much 

 more slender, and is readily distinguished from it by the deep, lateral, 

 longitudinal groove characteristic of the sub-genus Urile. 



The under surface of the rostrum is less grooved, longitudinally, than 

 that of carbo and much less so than that of 7*. urile. 



The palatines are as long as those of carbo, anteriorly narrower and 



