10 Shufeldt, Osteology of the Red Wattle-Bird. [isf July 



transverse processes of the co-ossified uro-sacral vertebrae. These 

 are either entirely absent or else extremely minute in the repre- 

 sentatives of the other two genera. They occur again, however, 

 in the pelvis of Acanthogenys riifigiilaris, another short-billed 

 Meliphagidine. 



A glance at fig. 5 of Plate I. of the present paper is sufficient to 

 convince the avian osteologist that not only the bones of the 

 shoulder-girdle, but the stermim as well, are all typically Passerine 

 in their morphology and arrangement with respect to articulations. 



Apart from the matter of variation in size, and a few insignificant 

 details in character, all this part of the skeleton in Anthochcera 

 carimcidata essentially agrees with Entomyza and Prosthemadcra 

 as represented by the two foregoing species of these genera. 



Sternum, scapulce, coracoids, and os furculcB are all as distinctly 

 Passerine as they are in an average Thrush. It is interesting to 

 note, however, that in one particular the sternum of Anthochcera 

 carunculata agrees better with that bone in Prosthemadcra novce- 

 zealandice than it does with Entomyza cyanotis. This agreement 

 consists in a relatively longer maniibrial process and a convex 

 border for the lower moiety of the anterior part of the sternal 

 carina, instead of a concave one, as it is in Entomyza cyanotis. 



This lengthening of the manubrium sterni is also present in 

 Anellobia lunulata of Western Australia* and in other species. 



In Meliphaga phrygia the hypocleidium of the os fnrciila is 

 remarkably long, agreeing in this particular with the Red Wattle- 

 Bird (fig. 5, Plate I.) This is also the case, however, in other 

 Australian Passeres having no special relationships with the 

 MeliphagidcB, as in Sphecotheres among the Oriolidce, in which the 

 sternum and shoulder-girdle very closely agree with Anthochara.-f 



So far as the Meliphagidce and some of the allied families are 

 concerned, I present a very complete account of the comparative 



* There sometimes seems to be an individual variation in the matter of this 

 character, as the manubrium is somewhat shorter in the sternum of a female ^«///o- 

 chcera carunculata, collected on the 5th of May, 1865, by E. P. Palmer, (?) at 

 Dobroyde, and numbered 9,394 in the collection of the U.S. National Museum. (I 

 fail to find this locality on any of the standard maps.) 



+ III the species formerly known as Grallhia australis, which occurs on Clarence 

 River, New South Wales, the sternum is i-emarkable for having large elliptical 

 foraviiua, one on either side, in its xiphoidal extremity, instead of " notches," as is 

 the rule throughout the Passeres. There are three of these sterna in the Collections 

 of the U.S. National Museum (Nos. 9,396, cj, 9,278, $, and 9,279, $), but this 

 character occurs only in the sternum of the male. 



Coues states in the "Century Dictionary," under Grallina : — " A genus of oscine 

 Passerine birds, variously located in the ornithological system, lately placed in a 

 family called PrionopidiC. The Pied Grallina (G.picata) inhabits Australia. It is 

 entirely black and white, and 11 inches long. A second species, G. bruijni, is found 

 in the Arfak Mountains of New Guinea ; also called Tanyptis and Grallipes " 

 (p. 2,594). The only birds known to me, to which the specific name bruijni has 

 been applied, belong to the Paradiseida. It would be very interesting to examine 

 the entire skeleton of a species exhibiting the above described character in the sterna 

 of the two sexes. I believe this condition may occasionally be found to occur in 

 Ptiloris paradisea, of which species I have five sterna before me (No. 9)366, Coll, 

 U.S. Nat. Mus., c!*, right side). The osteology of the Paradiscidic stands in need of 

 comparative description. 



