220 Shufeldt, Osteology of Cereopsis novce-hollandicp. \ ^'^ .. 



ramus begins to slope to the articular facet of the same side, there 

 is found, on the jaws of all (ieese, a more or less prominent process 

 for muscular attachment. It is rather feebly produced in Cereopsis, 

 but very strong, prominent, and directed upwards and backwards 

 in such a Goose as Chen hyperhoreus and its allies. 



The mesial aspect of the mandible in Cereopsis and most 

 anserine fowls is smooth and flat, presenting no special points 

 for description. 



On the upper side of either articular end we note the two facets 

 for articulation with the quadrate ; the usual slender external 

 angular process directed inwards and upwards, and, finally, the 

 long, very gently upward-curved posterior articular process. 

 Mesially, in the recess between these two processes we find a small 

 nutrient foramen in the mandible, on either side, in Cereopsis, 

 which opening is of great size in some of the large fuliguline 

 Ducks, as, for example, in Tachyeres cinereiis ; rather less in some 

 Geese, as in Branta, and still smaller in others. 



Tachyeres, in contradistinction to the Anserince, has also the 

 posterior articular process on either side, very long, of a parallelo- 

 gramic outline, with the supero-posterior angle abruptly produced 

 upwards as a triangular process. (Fig. 23, Plate XXXII.) All 

 the true Geese before me at this writing have the long, slender, 

 gently curved, sabre-shaped posterior articular processes — ^so 

 different from what we find in the form of that apophysis in 

 Tachyeres. 



A number of years ago I made a drawing for Dr. Elliott Coues 

 of the hyoid bones of Branta canadensis, seen on dorsal view, 

 which he published in the fifth edition of his " Key to North 

 American Birds " (fig. 72, p. 173). This same drawing I repro- 

 duced in my " Osteology of Birds," published in 1909 by the State 

 Museum of Albany. (Fig. 42, p. 314.) As I have no drawings 

 of the hyoidean apparatus as found in Geese to present with this 

 paper, I mention these facts, in that a reliable figure of the tongue- 

 bones of a Goose will be at hand for comparison by those who 

 may have either of the above works available, with the description 

 which here follows 



As in the case of all Geese. Cereopsis novce-hollandicB has the 

 skeletal parts of the lingual apparatus perfectly developed, and 

 in no way especially differing from those structures as we find 

 them in a number of its congeners. 



The glosso-hyal, with its anterior tip finished off with cartilage, 

 is barely half the length of that bone of the arc as we find it in 

 Branta canadensis, and of a different form. This last-named bird 

 has a glosso-hyal measuring 3 centimetres in length, with an 

 average width of 6 millimetres, all the angles being rounded off. 

 It is concave dorsally, and correspondingly convex below. The 

 cartilage that finishes off its distal end is of about three-fourths 

 the width of the bones itself, while at the proximal extremity the 

 facet for the basibranchial is very large, as compared with that 

 part of this articulation in other Geese. 



