SHUFELDT.] OSTEOLOGY OF THE CATHARTIDZ. On 
deficiencies in their lateral walls. The neural canal as it passes through 
the vertebre of the upper half of the neck is nearly cylindrical, but as 
we approach the middle of the neck it gradually becomes compressed 
from side to side, and assumes the vertical ellipse, to become circular 
again before arriving at the dorsalregion. In the atlas the facet for the 
condyle of the occiput is semilunar in outline, and the neurapophyses 
are broad above, but as usual exhibits no sign of a neural spine. Below 
we commonly find a well-marked hypapophysis, though this feature is 
absent in C. atrata; laterally we have the unclosed vertebral canal of 
this bone, the processes receding from each other as sharp spicule. 
These points are still nearer together in the axis, and in this segment 
we find a thick, quadrate, neural spine occupying the center of the arch 
above. Below, the hypapophbysis is carina-like in character, traversing 
in the median line the entire centrum of this bone. The odontoid pro- 
cess is an insignificant tip, being quite broad from side to side, while the 
postzygapophyses are tuberous lateral projections, with the facets on 
their under aspects in the horizontal plane, looking directly downwards, 
with the anapophysial projections above, elevated into prominent though 
blunt tuberosities. 
The facet for the third vertebra i is convex from side to side, and looks 
almost directly upwards, it facing slightly backwards; the similar sur- 
face for the atlas, anteriorly, being much more extensive, twice as broad, 
continuous with the articular surface beneath the odontoid process, is 
directed forwards. Solidity and great breadth marks the third cervical 
vertebra; in it bony Ianine connect, on either side, the pre- and postzyg- 
apophyses, an elliptical foramin being found in the surface near each 
lateral margin. 
There is a conspicuous neural spine with thickened crest, while below 
we have a quadrate hypapophysis. The vertebral canal is completely 
closed in, and parial parapophysial processes begin to make their appear- 
ance, being directed backwards; in all of the Vultures these spine-like 
appendages are long and styliform in mid-neck, to become broad and 
tuberous as we proceed dorsalwards. 
Facets upon the pre- and postzygapophyses of this vertebre are ellip- 
tical in outline and comparatively large; the former are directed up- 
wards and a little forwards, the latter almost directly downwards. The 
anterior facet of the centrum, below and immediately outside of the 
neural canal, partakes of its usual ornithic characters; it is very narrow 
from above downwards and decidedly concave from side to side. In 
this vertebra, the last remnants ot the carotid canal are present in all 
of the Cathartide ; it is formed in its usual manner as we pass down the 
serial segments. In S. gryphus its first appearance is made in the eleventh 
cervical, but in the tenth in G. papa, as is also the case in C. aura and 
Catharista. More or less complete interzygapophysial bars are found 
joining the process laterally in the fourth vertebra. The hypapophysis 
of this segment is reduced to a low ridge beneath, while superiorly the 
neural spine still projects from the lamina, mesiad, as a vertical peg- 
like process. The articular facets are about as we found them in the 
preceding vertebra. 
As a rule, the hypapophysial process throughout the cervical series, 
after passing it when it is double for the carotid arteries, is found bet- 
ter marked on the next two or three ultimate vertebre. Those cervical 
vertebre that possess free ribs rarely show a distinct hypapophysis, 
but in them the centrum béneath is broad and oblong in figure, with a 
faint ridge mesiad at the usual site. 
Another suppression takes place on the part of the neural spine 
