1871.] 251 [Hyatt. 



Catarractes demersus Brisson, Ornithol., vol. 6, p. 112. 



Phaeton demersus Linn., Ed. x, p. 135. 



There may be three or four scutella on each toe. All of the up- 

 per edge, the tip and part of the lower edge of the under wing dark 

 colored. The dark feathers do not extend upon the throat but form 

 a nearly straight line across. On one side the dark feathers of the 

 sides of the neck encroach upon the white of the abdomen and form 

 a partial collar of white which is not seen on the other side. Only 

 the lateral feathers of the oral regions are sufficiently lengthened 

 to form the crest, and they do not extend forwards above the eyes. 



One adult. Falkland Islands, Coll. La Fresnaye. 



Eudyptes chrysocoma. 



Aptenodytes chrysocoma Forst. Comment. Gott., vol. in, 1781, p. 

 135, pi. 1. 



Eudyptes pachyrhynchus Gray, Gen. of Birds, vol. Ill, pi. 176. 



? Eudyptes nigrwestis Gould, P. Z. S., 1860, 418. 



Three scutella on each toe. Two-thirds of the upper edge and 

 the tip alone of the under wing are dark. The dark feathers extend 

 farther down upon the throat than in either of the two species men- 

 tioned and have a pointed, convex outline. The lateral feathers of 

 the oral regions form a double crest as in Eudyptes catarractes, but 

 also extend forwards beyond the eyes and join on the front to form a 

 central tuft. 



One adult. No locality, Coll. La Fresnaye. 



OSTEOLOGICAL NOTES, BY DR. ELLIOTT COUES. 



The skeleton of the Spheniscidse is highly characteristic. With the 

 general conformation, as a whole, of that of other Pygopodes, seen 

 in the backward set of the posterior limbs, the great extent of the 

 bony (costal and sternal) framework enclosing the abdominal as well 

 as thoracic viscera, etc., there are many special modifications of the 

 skeleton, any one of a large number of individual bones being of 

 itself diagnostic of the family. A remarkable solidity, breadth and 

 flatness of different bones is the dominant characteristic; it marks sev- 

 eral bones that are cylindrical in all other birds and hollow in most. 



Foremost among the diagnostic skeletal characters of the family 

 comes the partly confluent condition of the metatarsals, which in all 

 other existing birds are completely fused. The compound metatarsus 

 is exceptionally broad from side to side, and shows its composition in 

 the two lengthened fenestras that indicate the three original meta- 



