1900.] SHUFELDT—OSTEOLOGY OF THE STRIGES. 675 
Mr. Beddard found these differences supported in the two 
Strigine families in question by the dissimilarities that were ex- 
hibited on the part of the tensores patagii and the syringes. He 
presents very good figures of these last-mentioned structures as 
they occur in S¢rzx flammea, Bubo maculosus and Scops leucotts. 
Upon examining a skeleton (No. t8196) of our own American 
Barn Owl (Strix pratincola) in the collections of the United States 
National Museum, as well as the trunk skeleton of one in my pri- 
vate cabinets, I find that there are a number of good characters, 
referable to the osseous system of this bird, which are not noted by 
Mr. Beddard in the list of characters I have quoted from him 
above (see Pl. XIV, Fig. 21, and Pl. XV, Figs. 24 and 25). And 
as these characters are quite distinctive when we come to compare 
the skeleton of this Owl with a skeleton of any of the typical 
Bubonide, | will enumerate them here: 
(1) The vomer is notably large in St7x pratincola. 
(2) And in it, comparatively, the lacrymal is avery large bone 
and has considerable antero-posterior length. 
(3) The manubrium on the sternum is aborted. 
(4) The mid-lower point of the os furcula makes a pseudo-articu- 
lation with the anterior carinal angle of the sternum. It has been 
said that in very old Owls of this species anchylosis may take place 
at this point. 
(5) The antero-lateral angles of the ilia are produced forward 
as prominent processes. 
(6) An os prominens is not developed at the distal end of the 
radius. 
(7) The head or proximal end of the tarso-metatarsus is twice 
perforated in the antero-posterior direction. 
(8) Two vacuities are seen in the expanded portion of the proxi- 
mal phalanx of the index digit. 
This last-mentioned character reminds one of what we likewise 
find in some of the American Cafrimu/gt. 
Agreeing with other Owls, we find in S¢r¢x pratincola nineteen 
free vertebre between skull and pelvis, and eight in the skeleton of 
the tail, which count includes the pygostyle. 
In the arrangement of the ribs we find them to vary ; a specimen 
of Stix pratincola before me has a tiny pair of free ribs on the thir- 
teenth vertebre; they are larger on the fourteenth ; while on the 
fifteenth the rib does not join with the sternum on the left side, but 
