110 MEMOIKS OF THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM 



certain references to these birds, it being entitled, " Notes on the Steganopodes and 

 on Fossil Birds' Eggs" (Vol. XI., No. 4, pp. 337-339) ; and there was likewise a note 

 published about them on November 6, 1894 {P. Z. S., p. 608). 



Since then and up to the present time, (October, 1902), no paper or publica- 

 tion of any importance whatever of mine has been published about the Steganopodes, 

 and especially about their osteology. In this interim, however, I made, as far as 

 the material at hand would permit me, a more or less extensive study of the 

 osteology of the entire group. These researches from time to time were written out 

 and with them incorporated the facts brought out in my earlier publications. As 

 time passed on, too, Mr. F. A. Lucas, of the U. S. National Museum at Washington, 

 published a number of very important and interesting papers on the osteology of 

 the Steganopodes, and as two of the best of these were of no great length, they like- 

 wise, with their figures, are herewith incorporated. 



Moreover, during the last seven or eight years, Mr. Lucas with great industry has 

 collected together for the osteological collections of the U. S. National Museum the 

 finest series of skeletons of steganopodous birds existing anywhere in any institution 

 in the world. With great courtesy and marked generosity Mr. Lucas has placed all 

 this material at my disposal, to be studied and utilized in the present connection, 

 and for this and for many other favors in the same direction, altogether too 

 numerous to mention, my most sincere thanks are due to that distinguished anat- 

 omist. I am greatly indebted, too, to the courtesy of the U. S. National Museum in 

 allowing me to take to my residence in Washington, from time to time, specimens 

 to be photographed by me, which latter, being reproduced, form the material repre- 

 senting many of the figures in my plates. M}^ private collections have likewise 

 furnished specimens not as yet existing in the U. S. National Museum, and, as will 

 be seen, a number of these will also be found among my figures on the plates. I 

 am also indebted to other persons who have kindly collected material for me, but 

 I believe in each case such assistance is duly noticed in the body of the present 

 memoir. It also gives me pleasure to extend my thanks to my wife Alfhild for 

 having made a very fair and correct copy of the notes I have collected on the 

 osteology of the Steganopodes for a number of years past, and these may now be 

 presented in the following manner : 



We have this suborder of birds very fully represented in the North American 

 avifauna. Of the first family in it to be considered in this memoir, — the Phaethon- 

 tidx or Tropic Birds, we have at least two good species, viz: — PJiaethon fiavirostrisy 

 the Yellow-billed Tropic Bird, and P. sethereus, the Red-billed Tropic Bird. Gannets 

 of the family Sulidae are still more numerous, but they all belong, apparently, to the 



