OSTEOLOGY OF THE PENGUINS. By Dr E. W. Shufeldt, 

 C.M.Z.S., M.A.O.U., Memb. Soc. of Amer. Anatomists, &c. 

 (Plate XXXVIII.) 



In my provisional classification of the group or class AvES, the 

 Penguins occupy the following place in the scheme, viz. : — 



Supersuborder III. :— APTENODYTIFORMES. 

 Suborder : — Impennes. 

 Family : — Spheniscidce. 



The literature of the anatomy of Penguins has been enriched 



from time to time by some very excellent papers and memoirs. 



Not a few of these have been examined by me, but more 



•especially the one on " The Spheniscidse," by Professor Morrison 



Watson {Zoology, Voy. ' Challenger,' pt. xviii.) ; the one by Dr. 



Coues, entitled " Material for a Monograph of the Spheniscidse " 



(Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. PUla., 1872, pp. 170-212) ; and the article 



" Penguin," by Professor Newton, in his Dictionary of Birds 



(pt. 8, p. 705). Other worthy contributions to the.i^ubject are 



by MM. Paul Gervais and Alix {Jour, de Zool., 187V, pp. 424- 



470); M. Filhol {Bull. Soc. Philomath, ser. 7, vi., pp. 226-248); 



and particularly the one by Professor Alphonse Milne-Edwards 



in the Annates des Sciences JSfaturelles, 1880 (vol. ix. art. 9, pp. 



23-81). I have also read the paper by Dr Sclater upon A. 



forsteri and A. 2Jenna7iti {Ibis, 1888, pp. 325-334), where figures 



of the skulls and sterna of those species are given. 



As material, I have before me fine skeletons of Aptenodytes 

 jpcnnantii, Spheniscus demersus, and others, all belonging to the 

 collections of the U.S. National Museum. These I have thoroughly 

 studied and compared with all the available literature upon the 

 subject, and have become convinced not only of the low mor- 

 phological rank of the Impennes, as contrasted with other 

 Ornithurce, but of the marked difficulty that attends the deci- 

 phering the affinities of this extremely old and decidedly 

 isolated suborder of birds. 



