OSTEOLOGY OF BIRDS 



47 



Quite in keeping with the large skeletons in these vultures, we find 

 them all possessing powerful limb bones in their pelvic extremities; 

 the pelvic limb in any one of them 'being fully as big in proportion 

 as the pectoral one, and the individual bones correspondingly as 

 massive. Among the species there are but few trifling characters 

 that differ, when we come to compare them, in any of the leg bones 

 or the joints of the feet. Neophron approaches the Falconidae in 

 the characters exhibited on the part of the skeleton of its legs. 



Cathartidae have these limbs constituted as in all ordinary birds, 

 and presented below is a table giving lengths as they occur in the 

 several species, also two of the Old World vultures, Neophron and 

 Gypogeranus. The latter has pelvic limbs, as we know, of unusual 

 length, as seen in the table. It is interesting to compare these 

 measurements with the measurements of the bones of the upper 

 extremity, presented in another table above. 



TABLE SHOWING THE LENGTHS OF THE BONES OF THE PELVIC LIMB 

 IN THE CATHARTIDAE, GIVEN IN CENTIMETERS; ALSO OF NEO- 

 PHRON PERCNOPTERUS AND GYPOGERANUS 



SPECIES 



FEMUR 



TIBIA 



TARSOMETA- 

 TARSUS 



Gymnogyps californianus . . . 



Sarcorhamphus gryphus 



Gyparchus papa 



Cathartes a. septentrionalis 



Catharista urubu 



Neophron percnopterus 



Gypogeranus ' serpentarius . . 



13.6 

 14.8 

 10 . 1 

 7 



9 3 

 7-3 

 1 1 



22 

 23 

 17 



11 . 9 

 14.8 

 11. 8 

 30.1 



12 



12.5 

 9.2 

 6.4 

 8.6 



7-5 

 29.1 



These measurements show us that, among the Cathartidae, the 

 condor of our western country possesses the greatest extent of 

 wing, although the South American one (Sarcorhamphus) has 

 the longest legs ; the same condition is also seen to exist between 

 Cathartes a. septentrionalis and Catharista 

 u r u b u . Also, in comparing Cathartes a. septen- 

 trionalis with Neophron percnopterus, we ob- 

 serve that, although the measurements of the segments of the pectoral 

 limb are very nearly alike, the latter bird has a longer tarsometa- 

 tarsus in comparison, even where the femur and tibia are nearly as 

 in the first ; here again we find in this Old World vulture a balance 

 among the segments of this extremity that simulates the Falconidae. 



