Merrill's Oological Notes from Montana. 203 



presence of any such bone, as being one likely to be confounded 

 with the carpal bones, in our study of the carpi of Falconidce. 

 He sums up the results of his valuable and advanced studies by 

 stating, '• Thus we must recognize in birds the presence of four 

 tarsal bones, and at least four carpal bones" (op. cit. p. 152). 



Prof. Huxley in his "Manual" (Manual of the Anatomy of Ver- 

 tebrated Animals, New York, 1S72, pp. 24S-9) has nothing to 

 say to us in regard to any such segment ; he concludes with the 

 wrist-joint by briefly remarking that t- There are only two carpal 

 bones, one radial and one ulnar," although this same profound 

 anatomist, to whom we owe so much, calls our attention, in 

 another paragraph, to the much smaller ossicle, in these terms : 

 "A small bone, the scapula accessor /a, is developed on the 

 outer side of the shoulder-joint in most Coracomorphoe and 

 Celeomorphce ." 



One would hardly look for it in Dr. Coues's elaborate descrip- 

 tion of the bird-wing in his ki Key" (Key to North American Birds, 

 1S72, p. 30), as that section was evidently written with a very 

 different purpose in view, and certainly not to decide the peculiar 

 osteological characters that might be or were already known, to 

 occur in the various wings of the many representatives of the 

 class. These remarks apply with equal force to all that Professor 

 Carl Vogt has to say to us in his paper upon the Arcluvopteryx 

 macrura (Ibis, Oct. 1SS0), where he devotes a paragraph to a 

 revision of the osteological points as they occur in the upper 

 extremity of the Rin^-Dove. 



OOLOGICAL NOTES FROM MONTANA. 



RY DR. J. C. MERRILL. U.S.A. 



The following notes on the nests and eggs of six species of 

 birds may be of interest, as all are rare and two, those of the 

 Snowbird and Woodpecker, are, I think, undescribed. These 

 nests were found during the past season in the northern part of 

 the Big Horn Mountains, so near the Montana-Wyoming boun- 

 dary line that in some cases it is impossible to say in which of 

 these Territories they were located. 



