Official Organ of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union. 



Birds of zi fea.ther/ 



Vol. XII.] 1ST APRIL, 191 3. [Part 4. 



On the Comparative Osteology of Cereopsis 

 novae^hollandiae. 



By R. W. Shufeldt, M.D., Washington, D.C. 



There is at present, so far as I am aware, no complete account 

 of the skeleton of the Australian Goose described by Latham as 

 Cereopsis novcc-hoUandice^ wherein its characters have been com- 

 pared with those to be found in the skeletons of other species of 

 Geese. This extraordinary fowl is now on the road to extinction, 

 and it is important that we should possess a reliable account of 

 its osteology. Eyton, in his Supplement to his " Osteologia 

 Avium," presents the right lateral view of a more or less complete 

 skeleton of an a.dult specimen of Cereopsis (unnumbered) ; but 

 it is merely a sketchy affair, drawn by Mr. G. Scharf, and of little 

 value beyond giving a general notion of the articulated skeleton 

 of a specimen of this si)ecies. 



What Eyton has to say, in his general work, with respect to 

 the osteology of Cereopsis novcB-hollandicc, is very little, more or 

 less unscientific, and, in some respects, quite incorrect. What 

 he says would lead one to suspect that Cereopsis was like 

 Plectropteriis gai)ibe)isis in the matter of its skeletology, which, 

 as we know, is not so.* 



Sharpe, in his " Hand-list of Birds," places Plectropteriis and 

 Cereopsis in two distinct sub-families {Plectra pterince and Cereop- 

 since, vol. i., pp. 208 and 210), and the morphology of the two 

 forms stands for the correctness of such a taxonomical arrange- 

 ment . 



My ability to furnish an account of the osteology of Cereopsis 

 is entirely due to the courtesy of the United States National 

 Museum, and to Dr. Charles W. Richmond, of the Division of 

 Birds of that institution, for the loan of not only the necessary 

 material for the purpose, but a large series of other skeletons of 

 Ducks, Geese, and Swans, wherewith to make a comparative study 

 of this remarkable Australian anserine. The material in question 

 consists of a complete skeleton of Cereopsis novcc-hollandice 



* Eyton, T. C, "Osteologia Avium; or, A Sketch of the Osteology of 

 Birds," Lond., 1867, p. 204. Plate in the Supplement (1869), where, though 

 it is unnumbered, it is No. 2. 



