ON THE OSTEOLOGY AND SYSTEMATIC 
POSITION OF THE ALCA 
DR. R. W. SHUFELDT. 
Some twelve or thirteen years ago I published several illus- 
trated papers upon the osteology of the Alcz, they having 
appeared in the Journal of Anatomy of London (Vol. XXIII, 
N.S.; Vol. III, October, 1888, pp. 1-39, Pls. I-V; January, 1889, 
pp. 165—186, Pls. VII-XI; April, 1889, pp. 400-427, Figs. 1-17 
(text); July, 1889, PP. 537, 538, Figs. 1-8, and October, 1889, 
pp. 89-106, Pls. VI-VIII) In the text-figures and plates to 
these memoirs will be found reproductions of drawings of 
mine of the bones of a great many species of Alcz, as Alca 
torda, Plautus impennis, Uria (two species), Synthliborhamphus, 
Cepphus, Brachyrhamphus, Lunda, Fratercula, Cyclorrhynchus, 
Simorhynchus, and others. In some cases several species of 
each are illustrated, there being upwards of one hundred 
figures in all. The descriptions are quite in detail, and taken 
in connection with the cuts and plates present accounts of 
nearly all the auks and puffins and their immediate allies 
known to science the world over. In fact, the only genera 
not thus treated are Pseuduria, Micruria, and Ceratorhyncha, 
and it is not likely that the osteology of any of these dif- 
fers very much from that of known forms more or less 
nearly related to them, and certainly not to an extent to 
modify the present views of avian taxonomers upon the classi- 
fication of the Alcze. It will not, therefore, be necessary to 
reproduce much, if any, of that work in the present connec- 
tion, and so far as the osteology of the extinct great auk 
(Plautus tmpennis) is concerned it has been very thoroughly 
described by numerous writers, and particularly by Sir Richard 
Owen and Mr. F. A. Lucas of the United States National 
Museum. To illustrate the. present paper, however, I will 
Offer a figure of the skeleton of the great auk, in order not 
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