528 DR. R.W. SHUFELDT ON THE COMPARATIVE OSTEOLOGY [ Apr. 27, 
Assistant Curator of the Division of Birds of the U.S. National 
Museum, to whom my thanks are extended for having pointed 
out the changes made in the nomenclature of three of the families, 
and for having brought up to date the present known habitats of 
the species represented. 
In this list the genera Cyanerpes, Diglossa, and Cereba belong 
to the family Coerebide ; Arachnothera, Leptocoma, Cinnyris, 
and Anthreptes to the Nectariniide; Acanthorhynchus, Prosthe- 
madera, HLntoma Yrlt, and Acanthogenys to the Meliphagide; and, 
finally, Cli imacteris to the family Certhiide. 
Again, and designating the species in the list by their numbers, 
we are to observe that No. 289 occurs in 8. Mexico to 8.E. Brazil 
and Cuba; No. 345in the Indian Peninsula to Burmese Provinces 
and Malay Peninsula; No. 318 in the Himalayas to Burmese 
Provinces; No. 497 in the Celebes; No. 340 in 8. Africa; 
No. 426 in S. Mexico and Guatemala; No. 500 in Siam to the 
Malay Peninsula, Java, Sumatra, Bali, Borneo, and Sulu and 
Tawi Tawi groups, P.I.; No. 306 in Cayenne to S.E. Brazil and 
Bolivia; No. 718 in Australia and Tasmania; No. 365 in New 
Zealand ; Nos. 702 and:712 in KE. and 8. Australia: and No. 725 
in 8.8.E. and West Australia. Thus it will be seen that the 
species are found to range through Southern Mexico, Bolivia, 
South-eastern Brazil, West Indies, South Africa, widely over 
India and the East Indies, Australia, and New Zealand. They 
are all tropical or subtropical species, and none of them occur in 
North America north of Southern Mexico; none in any part of 
Europe or in the larger part of Asia. 
My reasons for selecting from the list one of the species of 
Arachnothera as the principal form of which the osteological 
characters will be given in preference to any of the others are 
that, practically, the genus is from the centre of the region of the 
world’s avifauna where the other families represented find their 
habitats, the regions considered being large continental areas of 
the earth’s surface. Secondly, two species of Arachnothera occur 
in the list, and the skeleton afforded by the specimen of 4. magna 
is the most perfect of any of those obtained. Finally, in any 
comparative anatomical work it is always best to select some 
special form, be what it may, wherewith to compare the struc- 
tural characters presented on the part of all its supposed-to-be 
congeners, material for which may be at hand. 
THE SKULL.— Viewing this part of the skeleton upon its superior 
aspect, it is to be observed that the cranial portion is globular in 
form, smooth, and is marked, mesially, by a broad shallow furrow 
that runs forward and to the right, to be lost at the cranio-facial 
line. This furrow is far better marked in Arachnothera longi- 
rostris, and in both species affords lodgment in life for the thyro- 
hyals or “ greater cornua ” of the hyoid arches. A similar groove 
is found in the same locality on the skulls in the Trochilide, only 
