1900. ] SHUFELDT—OSTEOLOGY OF THE WOODPECKERS. O79 
accomplished up to that time. Since then all of my descrip- 
tions of the skeletology of the Woodpeckers have been gathered 
together, and I am inclined to believe they form the most 
complete history of the skeleton in those birds, both in detail and 
in a comparative way, that has thus far been furnished by anatom- 
ists. For making a fair and accurate copy of my collected descrip- 
tions and account of the osteology of this important group I am 
wholly indebted to the kind patience and intelligence of my wife, 
Alfhild, and it gives me great pleasure to thank her here for the 
assistance she has rendered. 
The plates and figures illustrating the present contribution have 
never heretofore been published, and it is hoped that comparative 
anatomists will find them useful in their work. 
At least three good families of Woodpeckers are known to science 
—that is, the Prcide, the Picumnide and the Lyngide—but of 
these only the first-mentioned, with a variety of its genera and 
numerous species, is represented in the avifauna of the United 
States. Naturalists need not be reminded here by name of all 
of these forms, as the majority of them are familiar to every one. 
Every genus is represented by a more or less perfect skeleton in 
the material I have before me at the present writing, and upon 
which this account will be based; some skeletons I have in large 
series, as Welanerpes torquatus, of which bird I collected a large 
number in northwestern New Mexico in 1885. Some I have in 
the young stages, beautifully exhibiting the development of the skull 
and trunk-skeleton; others, again, are more imperfect. Thanks 
to the United States National Museum, I have at hand the skele- 
ton of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker, but it unfortunately lacks the 
skull and some few other bones. The same institution, however, 
has kindly loaned me a very fair skull of Campephilus impertatts. 
Numerous skeletons of various species of the genus Dryobates, of 
my own preparation, are available, and I am indebted to Mr. 
Samuel Parker, of Fort Klamath, Ore., for a fine skeleton of Xeno- 
picus albolarvatus. Further, I must not forget to thank my friend 
Mr. Thomas Mcllraith, of Hamilton, Ont., Canada, for a fine 
skeleton of a male Prcotdes arcticus. I have skeletons in force of 
every one of our species of Sphyrapicus, all of my own collecting 
and preparation, and by purchase I have obtained excellent skeletons 
of Ceophleus pileatus. Dr. W. S. Strode, of Bernadotte, Ill., has 
