TT4. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
plies pretty generally to the remaining segments of the pectoral limb. 
On the palmar aspect of the bone, at the base of the greater tuberosity, 
in Gyparchus, we find a deep pit that is not observed in the humerus 
of any other member of this family, though its site is marked in all by 
a very shallow depression. 
In the Condors we find the radius straight and nearly parallel with 
the ulna; particularly is this the case in Pseudogryphus, where for the 
distal two-thirds of its extent the interosseous space is of nearly an 
equal width; on the other hand, the bone is very much bent in C. aura, 
but here it corresponds with a compensating curvature of its fellow, and 
little change is experienced in the interosseous space. Strong muscu- 
lar lines and decided development of the ornithic characters of the two 
extremities mark this bone. Asarule, the shaft is subtrihedral through- 
out, this being due to the prominence of the muscular lines aforesaid. 
A transverse facet occupies the entire extent of the distal aspect of its 
expanded outer end, and articulates as usual with the scapho-lunar of 
-the carpus. The facet for the oblique tubercle on humerus is seen to 
be an elliptical concavity, placed vertically, with a broad, articulating 
surface, to its outer side for the ulna. One of the most striking features 
of the ulna that attracts our attention upon first examining this bone 
is its well-defined and double row of elevated quill-knobs for the bases 
of the quills of the secondaries; these are placed at about equal dis- 
tances apart, along the palmar aspect of the shaft for nearly its entire 
‘length (Plate XV, fig. 105, Gyparchus), the fainter row being seen beneath 
them, the knobs being placed opposite each other. About its prox- 
imal end we note that the olecranon is but feebly produced, being noth- 
ing more than a general extension of the shaft, just sufficient to afford 
the necessary surface for the cireular facet for the ulnar convexity on 
the humerus, the radial one being continuous with it, quadrate in out- 
line, and much shallower. Upon the inferior face of the subtrihedral or 
proximal end of the shaft, we find in all of the Cathartide a long ellipti- 
cal depression, that is quite characteristic, and is absent in Neophron 
and the majority of the Falconide. Beyond this locality the shaft soon 
assumes the subcylindrical form, becomes gradually smaller in caliber 
to bear distally the trochlea surface for the remaining bonelet of the 
carpus. 
All the members of this family after they have attained their full 
growth possess but the two usual carpal segments, the scapho-lunar 
(radiale) and the cuneiform (ulnare); these articulate with the long 
bones of the antibrachium proximad, and the trochlea surface afforded 
by os magnum, anchylosed with medius metacarpal, distad.. Their gen- 
eral form varies but very little throughout the species, they bearing 
the common characteristics as we find them described for the class 
generally. 
These remarks apply with equal truth to the metacarpus (Plate XV, 
fig. 105, and Plate XIX, fig. 110m.), a bone that is strikingly similar 
among the Cathartide, except in point of size, which, of course, varies 
with the species. It is constituted, as the bone usually is among birds, 
of the three united metacarpals; the short and projecting anterior one, 
or the poll-x metacarpal, being the first of the bird hand; next, the 
stout and largest of all, the second or mid-metacarpal, forming, as it 
does, the proper shaft of this compound bone; finally, the compressed 
and arched third metacarpal, thrown across, aS ah Osseous span, 
between the proximal and distal extremities of the latter at its poste- 
rior aspect. On the palmar side of the second above, we find a promi- 
nent projection in all of these Vultures, that in the Tetraonide was de- 
