776 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 
was only very recently, and when in the study of this accomplished 
naturalist, who was present, and to whom the fact was also new, that this 
characteristic occurred in Fulica, Gallinula, and no doubt in the Rallide 
generally, not only those of our American avi-fauna, but among their 
cousins on the other continents. Mr. James Bell, of Florida, an excel- 
lent observer of the habits of birds in their native haunts, had that same 
morning (Dec. 28, 1881), narrated to Mr. Ridgway how, when he was 
in Florida, he had noticed that the young of Jonornis martinica actually 
put these claws to practical use by holding on to twigs in climbing out 
of their nests, and sometimes even suspended themselves like bats do. 
Professor Owen distinctly states that the Swan does not possess an 
external claw, when he says, after describing various claws and spurs as 
they occur among birds: “Although the instances of these weapons, 
and the occasional use of the wings in birds not so armed, e. g., the swan, 
show them in the light of means of attack, the bones of the pectoral 
limb in birds are modified mainly for volant action.”—(Anat. Verts, Vol. 
If, p. 74. 
Mr. J. Jp Jeftries does not state exactly whether in the birds he ex- 
amined the claw made its appearance through the integuments or not, 
in his interesting paper, upon ‘The Fingers of Birds.” (Bull. Nutt. 
Ornit. Club, No. 1, p.6,1881). This writer remarks towards the close of 
his article, that ‘‘also where there are two or three joints respectively in 
the finger there are often claws on the end, thus pointing to ungual 
phalanges.” 
Since writing the article in the American Naturalist just referred to, 
I have, after more careful search among the specimens at the Smith- 
sonian Institution, found this claw in Neophron percnopterus, Gyps fulvus, 
and Vultur cinerea, and it, no doubt, occurs in all of the Old World 
Vultures, so that denying this fact was the most serious oversight that 
I allowed to creep into that paper. 
So far as our knowledge carries us at the present writing, however, 
we know of no author who has directly attributed this character to the 
Oathartide except ourselves. At the time the above paper appeared in 
the Naturalist such able ornithologists as Dr. Coues and Mr. Ridgway 
were unacquainted with its existence, the author having the pleasure 
to call Dr. Coues’s attention to the fact himself in a specimen of the 
Californian Condor; and Mr. William Brewster, an ornithologist whose 
knowledge of the external characters of birds and ability the writer 
holds in the very highest esteem, writes to me as follows: 
‘¢ Your discovery of the claw on the index digit of the Cathartid@ is 
most interesting and unexpected. I am no anatomist, or I might have 
anticipated you, as I have had the pleasure (?) of shooting and skinning 
both the Black Vulture and Turkey Buzzard.” 
The second metacarpal supports its usual number of phalanges, the 
upper one presenting the ulnar expansion, common in so many of the 
class and here well developed, affording below a broad facet for the most 
distal phalanx of manus, the second of this metacarpal being very much 
like the one representing pollex, only shorter and more delicately con- 
structed. A phalanx is also freely suspended from the last metacarpal. 
This is the smallest one in the hand, being about half the length of the 
broad one of the second metacarpal, alongside of which it lies. This 
sometimes develops a tuberous process from its ulnar border, a feature 
that becomes quite prominent in Neophron. 
_ Of the pelvis and the lower extremity.—We have already enumerated, 
in our table of the number of vertebree present in the different divisions 
