6 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



group here being considered in a contribution entitled A study of 

 the Fossil Avifauna of the Equus Beds of the Oregon Desert 

 [Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. Jour. v. 9, pi. 15-17, p. 389-425]. A year 

 previous to this, however, appeared my paper on Some Comparative 

 Osteological Notes on the Xorth American Kites [The Ibis, Lond. 

 Apr. 1891. v. 3, no. 10, p. 228-32], and the same month a brief 

 note in The Auk on A Peculiar Character Referable to the Base of 

 the Skull in Pandion [v. 8, no. 2, p. 236-37]. Another character 

 in the skeleton of the Osprey was also noticed in an article published 

 in The Ibis in July 1894, entitled On Cases of Complete Fibulae in 

 Existing Birds [Lond. v. 6, no. 2^, p. 361-66]. During the next 

 following three years I printed two or three other papers on the 

 Falconidae, ibut none of these had anything to do with the osteology 

 of the family. By far the most extensive memoir on the subject 

 however and the last one preceding what is herein set forth, ap- 

 peared in its revised form in the 12th Annual Report of the United 

 States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories 

 [Wash. Oct. 14, 1882, p. 727-88, pi. 15-24]. In the text of this 

 treatise the osteology of the Cathartidae is very fully described, and 

 illustrated by a few outline text cuts, while on the plates are 24 

 lithographic figures (natural size) giving the skulls (various views) 

 and other bones of nearly all the American Cathartidae, including 

 the condor, the Californian condor, the King vulture, Turkey buz- 

 zard, and the Black vulture. The text of this memoir is incor- 

 porated in the present work but is presented in an entirely new 

 form, thoroughly revised, amplified and improved. None of the 

 plate figures have been used again, though some of the same speci- 

 mens have been taken from a different point of view, and these 

 may be advantageously compared with those already published in 

 the 12th Annual Report above cited. 



Washington, D. C, January 31, 1901 



