578 SHUFELDT—OSTEOLOGY OF THE WOODPECKERS,  [Oct.5, 
on the west of this line practice circumcision, but in the country to 
the eastward of the line the custom is not in force. The line in 
yellow, from C to D, and continued on along the biue line to B, 
demarks the eastern limit of splitting the urethra—a genital mutila- 
tion having a very wide geographic range over the central and 
western portions of the Australian continent. The other blue line, 
from E to F, determines the western boundary of the tribes who 
practice splitting the urethra and circumcision, neither of 
these customs being found between that line and the coast of West- 
ern Australia. From the point F, along the coastal district to 
Roebourne and Condon, the rites referred to are not now insisted 
upon, and it is doubtful if their adoption by the natives there was 
ever universal. 
ON THE OSTEOLOGY OF THE WOODPECKERS. 
BY DR. R. W. SHUFELDT. 
(Plate IX.) 
(Read October 5, 1900.) 
INTRODUCTION. 
During the past ten years I have been collecting osteoiogical 
material with the view of making a comparative study of the skele- 
tons of the Prcz, or suborder of Woodpeckers. In time this mate- 
rial became so extensive that I found I had all of the genera of 
the North American fauna represented, and had the opportunity of 
examining into the osteology of many other species from different 
parts of the world. Being advantageously situated with respect to 
the large libraries in America, I read and investigated everything 
that came to my notice upon this subject, and wrote out notes 
upon the same. Occasionally I printed a brief account of some 
of the osteological points of interest in this group as they came 
to hand, but the main bulk of my labors in this direction have 
long remained unpublished. ‘True it is that in the Proceedings 
of the Lovblogical Society of London I printed finally (February 
3, 1891) a short account of the osteological characters of the 
Pict, with a few brief notes upon the group, but this was 
nothing more than apartial abstract based upon what had been 
