ON AVIAN OSTEOLOGY. 393 



dogs, containing C. ihovji {j=cancr%vorus) and vetulus, and by 

 uniting his Sacaline and Lupine sections. Possibly these sections 

 contain gi'oups worthy of subgeneric, if not of generic, recog- 

 nition : C antarcticus and C. thous, for example, may be sub- 

 generically or generic-ally separated by the structure of the 

 mandible; but I do not see how C. latrcms is to be distinguished 

 other than specifically from such forms as C. palliiJes, anthus, or 

 even lupus. 



30. On the Patella in the Phalacrocoracidse. 

 By Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, C.M.Z.S. 



[Received April 14, 1913 : Read May 20, 1913.] 

 (Plate LXI.*) 



While recently employed in preparing a detailed account of the 

 skeleton of Harris's fiightless Cormorant {Nannopterxim harrisi), 

 in which the osteology of that species is compared with that of 

 a number of othei's of the family, I became interested in the 

 morphology of the patelkTe of those birds. 



Many years ago I published a number of papers t on the skeleton 

 in the Cormorant, in some of which the patella of the Phala- 

 crocoracidee was refeired to and figures given of it. But my 

 material, at the time to which I refer, was very limited— in fact 

 I think there were but the skeletons of one or two species of 

 those birds at hand, and this included the skeletons of two or 

 three young ones. 



In the higher groups of biixls the patella, when present, is 

 usually small, and oflers but little of value to the avian taxonomist. 

 This, however, is not the case when we come to examine into the 

 osteology of some of the groups occupying lower positions in the 

 system, and especially is this true of many of the Pygopodine 

 forms and their allies near and remote. 



Owen paid but scant attention to this bone of the skeleton in 

 Aves, devoting less than half a paragraph to it, thus : — " The 

 chief of the sesamoid bones in the hind limb is the patella : it is 

 of unusual size in the Penguin, is ossified fiom two centres, and 

 articulates with the procnemial process of the tibia : it coexists 

 with the long rotular process in the Loon, fig. 34, 1; it is large 

 and of an angular form in the Musk-duck [Bizhira) : in the 

 Merganser the patella is largest and deeply notched ; in the Coot 

 it is elongate. In most aerial birds a patella is wanting" J. There 

 is no reference made here either to a Cirrebe or a Cormorant, and 



* For explanation of tlie Plate see p. 402. 



t Shnfeldt, R. W. " Osteolosry of the Cormorant," Science, Dec. 7, 1883, p. 739 ; 

 Feb. 8, 1884, vol. iii. No. 53, p. 143; ibid. Apr. 18, 1884, No. 63, pp. 474, 475. 



" Concerning some of tlie forms ass^umed l)y the PatelUi in Birds," Proc. U.S. Nat. 

 Mus. 1884, vii. pp. 324-33]. Nnmerous text-tigures. 



" t)steology of tbc Steganopodes," Mem. Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, Pa., Apr. 

 1903, vol. i.'No. 3, Art. 3, pp. 15-70. Plates and many text-figures. 



I Owen, Hicliard. Comp. Anat. ar.d Pliys. of Vertebrates, vol. ii. p. 83, London 

 18(56. 



