NOTES ON THE OSTEOLOGY OF SCOPUS UMBRETTA 

 AND BAL^ENICEPS BEX. By E. W. Shufeldt, 

 M.D., C.M.Z.S., Fellow of the Amer. Assn. for the Adv. 

 Science, &c. &c. (Plate XXXIX.) 



Although it is no uncommon thing to find skeletons of Scopus 

 in the collections of the larger museums of this country and 

 elsewhere, this is not so in the case of Bcdceniceps. In the 

 United States National Museum we have no osteological material 

 at all of this last-named type, while there is a very excellent 

 mounted skeleton of the Umbra {Scoiyus). A photograph of 

 this latter has been made for me, and from this a plate, which 

 is presented with the present notes. When we come, however, 

 to examine into the literature of the osteology of B. rex and 

 Scojms, the case as above stated seems to be reversed, for — and 

 the writer has looked pretty carefully — there does not appear 

 to have been written up to the present time, in the English 

 language, a general account of the skeleton of Scopus, while 

 W. K. Parker has given us a very full one of B. rex, illustrated 

 with several plates {P.Z.S., iv, 269). 



In this account the osteology of Scopus is touched upon 

 lightly in a few places, and this also applies to the work by 

 the same author entitled " A Monograph on the Structure and 

 Development of the Shoulder-girdle and Sternum in the 

 Vertebra ta " {Puh. Bay Soc., 1868). 



Mr F. E. Beddard, in the P.Z.S. for 1884 (p. 543), has con- 

 tributed a brief but useful paper on the morphology of this 

 bird, entitled " A Contribution to the Anatomy of Scopus 

 umhretta," in which he says : " The dissection of two specimens 

 of Scopus 2(,mhretta, has enabled me to bring a few notes upon 

 its anatomy before the Society. One of these individuals lived 

 in the Society's gardens from 1880 to 1884, the other was sent 

 to the late Mr W. A. Forbes from Africa. Both were partially 

 dissected by Mr Forbes ; and in preparing the following 

 account I have had the advantage of consulting a few MS. 

 notes left by him." • 



VOL XXXV. (N.S. vol. XV.) — APEIL 1901. 2 D 



