SHUFELDT.] OSTEOLOGY OF THE CATHARTIDA. fot 
according to Coues’ Key of North American Birds (1872), Cathartes cali- 
fornianus, C. aura, and C. atratus. They appear in Mr. Ridgway’s 
Nomenclature of North American Birds (Bull. U. S. Nat. Museum, No. 
21, 1881) as we have given them above (G. papa not being included), 
viz, Pseudogryphus californianus, Cathartes aura, and Catharista atrata.* 
We shall soon see, when the skeletology of these have been compared, 
how far the osteological characters will support this generic division. 
Before passing, however, to the examination of the skeletons of these © 
birds, the author proposes to present his reader with a short table 
showing additional points in external structure that have been gleaned 
from various sources and authorities as well as from his own memo- 
randa. We feel sure that although in a paper proposing, as its title 
indicates, to be purely osteological in character, such a diversion will 
hardly be considered amiss. 
* Dr. Coues, in his Check List and Ornithological Dictionary of 1882, also adopts 
this arrangement. 
