630 R. W. SHUFELDT 



gallinaceous in character that similar ones have been described 

 many times in various works on avian osteology. Moreover, with 

 its deep carina; concaved anterior border; a pair of long, somewhat 

 slender, xiphoidal processes on either side, with their expanded, 

 free extremities a prominent manubrial process of quadrilateral 

 form; and finally, a very narrow sternal body, and short costal 

 borders where the costal ribs articulate — all these characters, and 

 a few minor ones, are plainly to be seen in the sternum of this 

 specimen. 



This style of sternum agrees in all particulars with that bone as 

 we find it in Bonasa umbellus, exhibiting various modifications in 

 the style of sternum found in the genera and famihes of all gallina- 

 ceous birds, in all parts of the world, as for example pheasants, 

 guans, grouse, partridges, guinea-fowls, quails, turkeys, and all 

 their allies and congeners.^ 



Had I seen the sternum of this fossil bird and no other part of its 

 skeleton, I could, without the slightest hesitation, and without hav- 

 ing laid eyes upon the coracoids, scapulae, or the os furculum, have 

 described them in all detail. No fowl, living or extinct, possesses a 

 sternum in all respects agreeing with that bone in Gallinuloides 

 wyomingensis without having an os furculum which is of the U- 

 shaped pattern, with a large, sub triangular hypocleidium. The 

 clavicular limbs are of nearly uniform caliber, and the free superior 

 ends are but very slightly enlarged. Both Gallus and Bonasa 

 possess an os furculum of identically the same character, while 

 Gallinula, Fulica, Rallus, and the rest, possess a very different form 

 of one, and one that is more or less compressed antero-posteriorly, 

 without any hypocleidium worth mentioning. 



Either coracoid is large, above the average in length for ordinary 

 birds of this size, apart from the gallinaceous group, with the sternal 



' Richard Owen, Comp. Anat. and Phys. of Verts., II, 27; R. W. Shufeldt, "Oste- 

 ology of Birds," New York State Museum Bull. 130, p. 183, Figs. 8 and 9 (Gallus 

 bankiva); Max Fiirbringer, Ueber Morph. und Systematik der Vogel, II, Table VI, 

 Figs. 43, 44, 45; on the same plate these may be compared with the sternums of 

 Fulica, Rallina, and Cryphirus, in order to exemplify the differences between the 

 galline sternum and the bone as it occurs in rails, gallinules, and tinamous; A. Chau- 

 veau, Comp. Anat. of the Domestic Animals, p. 113, Fig. 73; T. H. Huxley, Anat. Vert. 

 Animals, p. 241, Fig. 81; W. K. Parker, Art. "Bird," Encyclo. Brit., 9th ed.. Ill, 720. 



