Jhe £mu 



Official Organ of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union. 



"Bir^s of a fcatber." 



Vol. XIII.] 1ST JULY, 1913. [Part i. 



On the Osteology of the Red Wattle-Bird 



(Anthochaera carunculata). 



By R. W. Shufeldt, M.D., Hon. Mem. R.A.O.U., Washington, 



D.C. 



On the igth of October, 1912, I received, per favour of Mr. A. J. 

 Campbell, R.A.O.U., an excellent and complete articulated 

 skeleton, which I understand was prepared at the National 

 Museum, Melbourne, of an adult specimen of the Red Wattle- 

 Bird, known to science as Anthochcera * carunculahi, one of the 

 MeliphagidcB of Australia. It was Mr. Campbell's wish that I 

 prepare a brief, illustrated account of the osteology of this 

 species as a contribution to The Emu, of which he is co -editor. 

 This request was seconded, in a letter dated 8th June, 1912, by 

 Mr. F. Erasmus Wilson, the hon. secretary of the Royal Austral- 

 asian Ornithologists' Union, on behalf of the Council. Mr. 

 Campbell's letter of transmittal was dated at Melbourne, 14th 

 September, 1912. 



At the time this skeleton came into' my possession for descrip- 

 tion I had before me several hundred specimens of Pleistocene 

 fossil birds from Oregon to work up — the task being well in hand 

 — and I could not conveniently set it aside in order to undertake 

 what my colleagues in the R.A.O.U. had favoured me with, and 

 done me the honour to ask me to describe for the use of avian 

 osteologists in Australia. 



I was especially pleased to get a skeleton of Anthochcera canm- 

 cnlata to study, for I had already published descriptions of the 

 skeletons of a very large number of the Passerine birds of the 

 United States, with some of those of China, the Philippine 

 Islands, and elsewhere, and expressed opinions with respect to 

 their classification. f A few years ago I examined and compared 

 skeletons of a number of the Coerehidce, NectariniidcB, MeliphagidcB, 



* So spelt in the new " Check-list," R.A.O.U., but formerly Acanthochccra. 



t Shufeldt, R. W., "An Arrangement of the Families and Higher Groups of 

 Birds," Aiiier. Anai., vol. xxxviii., Nos. 455-456, Boston, Nov.-Dec, 1904, pp. 

 835-856. 



Also, " Contributions to the Comparative Osteology of the Families of North 

 American Passeres," /our. Morph., vol. iii., No. i, Boston, June, 1889, pp. 81-I14, 

 Pis, V. and VI. 



