7 70 Correspondence. [J"ly 



pair of ribs was not iiitVequentl v present on the second 'sacral' vertebra. At 

 some future day I hope to ascertain in what percentage of Great Auks this 

 condition prevailed, but the most interesting fact is that when the additional 

 pair of ribs is present there is usually at the same time a small para- 

 pophysis developed on the first true sacral vertebra, as if the rib-creating 

 force had been felt still further down the line of vertebra;. 



These abnormalities have been mentioned, as they seem to have a bear- 

 ing on the reduction in the number of vertebrse which Baur, Balfour and 

 Parker have shown has taken place among birds, and they may probably 

 be regarded as the reappearances of ribs once normally present in the an- 

 cestral types of existing birds. — Frederic A. Lucas, Washingion, D. C. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



[ Correspondents are requested to ivrite briefly and to the poiiil. No attention -.vill 

 be paid to anonymous communications.^ 



The Sternum in the Solitary Sandpiper, and other Notes. 



To THE Editors of the Auk : — 



Dear Sirs: Some little time ago, while looking over several skeletons 

 of the Solitary Sandpiper {Totattiis solitarius of the A. O. U check list), 

 which I have in my private collection, I noticed that the sternum of this 

 bird has but a single large notch on either side. Now the only two other 

 allied species in our avifauna, so far as is known to me at present, thus 

 constituted, are the Woodcock and Wilson's Snipe {Gallijiag-o delicata) , 

 and I am uncertain about the genus Macrorhafiipliiis, as I have not, as 

 yet, looked up the point in the species therein contained. Possibly, too. 

 Tetanus ochropus may possess a sternum with but a pair of notches in it, 

 and if that be the case, I am of the opinion that the character is very likely 

 to be associated with other distinguishing points in the economy of these 

 two birds, of ample importance, I think, to guarantee us in restoring 

 for their reception, the genus Rkyacophilus., which change I propose 

 in the present connection. Such forms as Tetanus fiavipes and T. 

 melanoleucus have the usual ybwr-wo/c/^Cf/ sternum, as is the general rule 

 among Limicoline birds. 



To furnish certain comparative notes on this point, we find that 

 Sir Richard Owen, in speaking of the sternum as it is found in certain 

 birds of this order, says, in the second volume of his 'Comparative Anat- 

 omy and Physiology of Vertebrates,' on page 26, that " the woodcock 

 (^Scolopax) has a pair of notches, with the outer boundary slender, and 

 shorter than the broad intermediate tract, the gambets {Tetanus^ , avocets, 



