SHUFELDT : THE OSTEOLOGY OF THE STEGANOPODES 



117 



2. Phcenicopteridse. 



Tropical. Nidifugous. 



18 or 19 cervical vertebrae. 



Hallux small, front toes webbed. Flexors of type IV. 



Tongue large and thick. 



Cseca functional. 



Syrinx with tracheo-bronchial muscles. 



In 1889, as has b3en stated above, the present writer contributed some brief 

 "Observations upon the Osteology of the Orders Tubinares and Steganopodes " to 

 the Proceedings of the U. S. National Museum (pp. 286-314), and so far as the 

 steganopodous birds were concerned there appeared in that article an illustrated 

 account of the skeleton of Sida bassana; some remarks, also with figures, on the 

 osteology of Cormorants and the Brown Pelican. That paper, with its figures, 

 will be incorporated into the present memoir, but at this writing I am better off for 

 osteological material wherewith to render a description of the skeletal characters of 

 this suborder. My observations at this time are based principally but by no means 

 altogether upon a study of the following skeletons and parts of skeletons. 



LIST OF MATERIAL. 



Name. 



Phaethon flavirostris. 

 Phaethon sethereus. 



Sula bassana. 

 Sula piscator. 

 Sula cyanops. 

 Sula gossi. 



Sula brewsteri. 



Anhinga anhinga. 

 Phalacrocorax urile. 

 Pelecanus fuscus. 

 Pelecanus fuscus. 

 Fregata aguila. 



Material. 



Remarks. 



Perfect skeleton. 

 Four perfect skeletons. 



Skeleton nearly complete. 



Skeleton. 

 u 



Three complete skeletons. 



Skeleton. 



11 



Skull and mandible. 

 Skeleton. 



No. 17,841. Smithsonian collections. 

 Author's collection. The gift of E. .1. Reed 



Esq., of Guaymas, Mexico. 

 No. 16,643. Smithsonian collections. 



" 18,739. " " 



" 18,542. " 



Author's collection. The gift of E. J. Reed, 



Esq., of Guaymas, Mexico. 

 Author's collection. The gift of E. J. Reed, 



Esq., Guaymas, Mexico. 

 No. 18,259. Smithsonian collections. 



" 18,982. " " 



Author's collection. 

 No. 18,483. Smithsonian collections. 



" 18,485. " " 



ON THE SKELETON IN PHAETHON. 7 



Of the Skull, etc. Of the two species of Tropic Birds, which we have to consider 

 here, the red-billed one is the larger species, and this difference is quite apparent in 

 their skulls, though in other particulars they are very much alike. In P. xthereus 



'Dr. Sharpe, in his recent Hand-List of Birds (1899, Vol. 1, p. 238), recognizes the following species of Phaethon as 

 representing the genus throughout the world, viz : P. rubricnuda, P. lepturua, P. fulnus, P. americanus, P. aethereus, and 

 P. indicm. In this enumeration P. americanus and P. flavirostris are one and the same species. 



