174 



MEMOIRS OF THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM 



We also note that the pit for the insertion of the ligamentum teres is more elab- 

 orately scooped out, and the trochanterian protuberance is produced far more to 

 the front in the Cormorant, such hardly being the case at all in the Darter. The 

 fibular and intercondyloid notches are very deeply sculpt, though anteriorly the 

 rotular channel is unusually shallow. 



The large trihedral ■patella, with its broad, flattish base is, as Garrod remarks, 

 often laterally pierced for the passage of the tendons of the ambiens muscle.^^ The 



'Fb 



Fig. 17. Knee joint of a Cormorant {Phalacrocorax urile); natural size. F, femur; P, patella (originally de- 

 scribed by the author in Science); Fb, fibula ; T, tibio-tarsus. Drawn by the author from a specimen in the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. 



Fig. 18. Knee-joint of Phalacrocorax urile, seen from in front. Natural size. Letters signify the same as in other 

 illustrations. 



cneraial processes of the tibio-tarsus are fairly well developed and are confined to 

 the anterior aspect of the head of the bone, where we also see a strong cnemial crest 

 rising above its summit. For its entire length, the shaft is compressed in the 

 antero-posterior direction, and the fibular ridge is long — standing well away from 

 the side of the shaft. Phalacrocorax has the fibula about as well developed as we 

 found it in Anhinga, it being complete and fused with the tibio-tarsus only at its dis- 

 tal end. When the bone is held vertically the internal tibio-tarsal condyle is the 

 lower of the two on the extremity of the shaft. 



Cormorants have a tarso-metatarsus differing in some marked particulars from that 

 borne in the Darters. In the first place it is pierced by but one arterial foramen at 

 its trochlear end, and its mid-trochlear process is the lowest on the shaft, rather than 

 the inner one as in the Anhingas. Tendinal grooves, and their dividing lines up 



12 Garrod, A. H. Coll. Scientif. Mem., p. 198. 



