SHUFELDT : THE OSTEOLOGY OF THE STEGANOPODES 113 



of the upper extremity of each of its rami, the anterior end of each coracoid coales- 

 cing also with the proximal end of the scapula. Thus the only articulations in the 

 whole sternal apparatus are where the coracoids meet the sternum, and the conse- 

 quence is a bony framework which would be perfectly rigid did not the flexibility 

 of the rami of the furcula permit a limited amount of motion. That this mecha- 

 nism is closely related to the faculty which the bird possesses of soaring for a consid- 

 erable time in the air with scarcely a perceptible movement of the wings can hardly 

 be doubted, but the particular way in which it works has yet to be explained " (loc. 

 clt, Vol. IX., p. 786). 



Among others, the birds we propose to consider osteologically in the present 

 memoir constitute the Order Steganopodes of the Check List of the American 

 Ornithologists' Union (1886, p. 106), where they are divided into the families Phae- 

 ihontidx, Sulidse, AnMngidse, Phcdacrocoracidse, Pelecanidx, and Fregatidse, — a family 

 arrangement adopted here. According to Reichenow the "Steganopodes" are an 

 Order (IV.) of the Natatores, and contain but three families, the Gracididse^ 

 Sulidx, and Pelecanidse,^ while Dr. Stejneger arrays them as follows : 



Order X. Superfamily. Family. 



PelecanidcT. 



Steganopodes. - 



Sulidffi. 



Phalacrocoracidse. 



Anhingidse. 



(XVI.) Pelecanoidere. 



(XVII.) Fregatoidese. 

 (XVIII.) Phsetontidese. 



Professor Fiirbringer, in his great work, places the " Steganopodes" (a Gens) in 

 his Suborder Ciconiiformes, of the Order Pelargornithes, and divides them into the 

 four families Pha'ethontidse, Phalacrocoracidse, Pelecanidse, and Fregatidse. A still dif- 

 ferent arrangement is proposed by Mr. Seebohm, and the place they are supposed to 

 occupy in the system according to his views will later on be given by me in my 

 Osteology of the Tuhinao-es. 



Garrod has said " The Steganopodes, which do not form so natural a family, in 

 my eyes, as in those of many ; for their myological formula is not the same in all, 



being 



In Phsethon A. XY, 



In Sula and Phalacrocorax AX, 



In Fregata A, 



5 Die Vogel der Zoologischen Garten, 1882. 



