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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



especially large is the ischial foramen; and the obturator one, also 

 of no mean size, is somewhat irregular in outline. 



The antitrochanter faces very much downward. A postpubic 

 element is quite peculiar, in that after closing in the obturator fora- 

 men below, it becomes very thin and narrow, to soon be suddenly 

 bent upward, gradually widening till it reaches the posterior angle 

 of the ischium, when, with equal rate, it contracts again to be thus 

 drawn out into the blunt pointed free extremity. All the way along, 

 where it lies beneath the lower iliac margin, it is in contact with 

 the same. Often, in the po.stacetabular region, the closely applied 

 sacral and iliac borders do not coossify. 



Upon its ventral aspect the •" pelvic basin" is seen to be more 

 than usually capacious ; five or six vertebrae, anteriorly, throw out 

 their lateral apophyses as braces to the iliac walls ; and the last 

 six sacrals have their parapophyses lengthened in a most striking 

 manner. Of these latter the first pair is the longest, and they 

 diminish in this respect in regular order as we pass backward. 

 Finally, the last peculiarity of this remarkable accipitrine pelvis is 

 seen in its having its pneumatic foramina upon the inside, where 

 they are arranged in small groups in the various recesses formed by 

 the ilia, as well as along the mesial borders of those bones in some 

 individuals. 1 



Some interesting features are to be seen in the shoulder girdle 

 of Pandion. Here os furcula is peculiar from its form, being a 

 remarkably wide and shallow U, with the concavity of the clavicular 

 limbs behind very decided, as are their corresponding arches in front. 

 A hypocleidium is well developed, and the entire bone is much 

 stronger in its general structure than it is in the falcons. On either 

 side of a clavicle above, we observe the usual thickened shoulder, 

 with its rather large and elongated facet to articulate with the head 

 of the coracoid. Beyond this the free end of the clavicle is drawn 

 out into a long point. 



1 Either one of the coracoids is a short, thickset, stout bone, with 

 tuberous head and expanded sternal extremity. A large pneu- 

 matic foramen is found upon the mesial aspect of the head some- 

 what below the overarching summit. The glenoid articular surface 

 is large, but the scapular process is very much reduced, and is not 

 produced forward at all, being just sufficient for the articulation 

 with the scapula. 



1 This feature is seen in a very fine disarticulated skeleton of Pandion kindly loaned 

 me by Mr Lucas from his own private cabinet, as well as in an odd pelvis in the 



possession of the same well known avian osteologist. 



