SHUFELDT : THE OSTEOLOGY OF THE STEGANOPODES 



117 



2. Phoenicopteridse. 



Tropical. Nidifugous. 



18 or 19 cervical vertebrse. 



Hallux small, front toes webbed. Flexors of type IV. 



Tongue large and thick. 



Caeca functional. 



Syrinx with tracheo-bronchial muscles. 

 In 1889, as has baen stated above, the present writer contributed some brief 

 " Observations upon the Osteology of the Orders Tubinares and Steganopodes " to 

 the Proceedings of the U. S. National Museum (pp. 286-314), and so far as the 

 steganopodous birds were concerned there appeared in that article an illustrated 

 account of the skeleton of Sula bassana ; some remarks, also with figures, on the 

 osteology of Cormorants and the Brown Pelican. That paper, with its figures, 

 will be incorporated into the present memoir, but at this writing I am better ofi" for 

 osteological material wherewith to render a description of the skeletal characters of 

 this suborder. My observations at this time are based principally but b}^ no means 

 altogether upon a study of the following skeletons and parts of skeletons. 



List of Material. 



Name. 



Material. 



Remarks. 



Phaethon flavirostris. 



Perfect skeleton. 



No. 17,841. Smithsonian collections. 



Phaethon aethereus. 



Four perfect skeletons. 



Author's collection. The gift of E. .1. Reed 

 Esq., of Guaymas, Mexico. 



Sula bassana. 



Skeleton nearly complete. 



No. 16,643. Smithsonian collections. 



Sula piscator. 



Skeleton. 



" 18,739. " " 



Sula cyanops. 



a 



" 18,542. " '^ 



Sula gossi. 



Three complete skeletons. 



Author's collection. The gift of E. J. Reed, 

 Esq., of Guaymas, Mexico. 



Sula brewsteri. 



11 U II 



Author's collection. The gift of E. J. Reed, 

 Esq., Guaymas, Mexico. 



Anhinga anhinga. 



Skeleton. 



No. 18,259. Smithsonian collections. 



Phalacrocorax urile. 



If 



" 18,982. 



Pelecanus fuscus. 



Skull and mandible. 



Author's collection. 



Pelecanus fuscus. 



Skeleton. 



No. 18,483. Smithsonian collections. 



Fregata aguila. 



■ 



" 18,485. " 



ON THE SKELETON IN PHAETHON." 



Of the Skull, etc. — Of the two species of Tropic Birds, which we have to consider 

 here, the red-billed one is the larger species, and this difference is quite apparent in 

 their skulls, though in other particulars they are very much alike. In P. xthereus 



' Dr. Sharpe, in his recent Hand-List of Birds (1899, Vol. 1, p. 238), recognizes tbe following species of Phaethon as 

 representing the genus throughout the world, viz : P. rubricnuda, P. lepturus, P. ftdvus, P. americanus, P. lethereus, and 

 p. indicus, In this enumeration P. americanus and P. flavirostris are one and the same species. 



