1902.] 



OSTEOLOGY OF THE FALCONII^RMBS. 



303 



certain Steganopodes. The resemblance is pei-plexing, and would 

 seem to suggest that it is from this more primitive stock that the 

 Falconiformes, in common with the Oiconise, have been derived : 

 the Giconiine characters of the Falconiform skeleton, already 

 alluded to, being homoplastic. On the whole, however, I feel, at 

 present, inclined to adopt the Gruine oi-igin of the Falconiformes, 

 suggested by Beddard. Gathartes and Catharistes agi'ee in that 

 the baekwardly produced spine of the ischium does not project far 

 beyond the postacetabular ilium. The iliac pockets of the Oathartae 

 are conspicuous by their absence. 



Text-fig. 36. 



'</--' 



-t)t-Gi . i I. 



is.-n-. 



Dorsal aspect of the Pelvis of Cathartes aura. 



TUis is probably a more primitive type of pelvis than that of Fseudogryphus, and 

 recalls that of Fregata or FhaetJion. Note that the preacetahular ilia are 

 widely separated, lying on either side of the broad ridge formed by the vertebral 

 neural spines, and that the intertransverse sacral foramina are large and 

 numerous. 



Additional letters. 



«wf/b»*.=intertransverse sacral foramina. 

 >j.s.= neural spines. 



We now turn to the pelvic girdle of the Accipitres. Here 



