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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



external pair of xiphoidal processes of the sternum are peculiar in 

 that their posterior ends are strongly bifurcated. 



In the skeleton of the manus, the pollex metacarpal projects for- 

 ward and upward as a rather conspicuous process. Its pha- 

 lanx does not bear a claw, and on the index metacarpal the indicial 

 process is present and overlaps the shaft of the next metacarpal 

 behind it. In the leg the fibula is free, and extends halfway down 

 the tibiotarsal shaft. 



The hypotarsus of the tarsometatarsus is grooved mesially for the 

 passage of tendons behind, and is also once perforated near its 

 middle for the same purpose. As I have already stated, the re- 

 mainder of the skeleton of this bird is characteristically gallinaceous 

 and need not detain us longer here. I would add, however, that the 

 " tarsal cartilages " in the turkey extensively ossify. 



My private cabinets furnish me with two skeletons of the 

 Chachalaca, one from an adult male and one from an adult female. 

 They were collected for me in the Rio Grande valley, Texas, by 

 Mr E. C. Greenwood. 



This, the O r t a 1 i s v e t u 1 a m a c c a 1 1 i of authors, is prob- 

 ably most nearly related, structurally, to the curassows, but in their 

 entire anatomy I have never compared the forms. We are struck 

 with the general resemblance of the skeleton of an Ortalis to that 

 of the wild G. bankiva of India [pi. I, fig. io]. Especially is 

 this the case with the skull, but in the Chachalaca we are to note 

 the large lacrymal bones with their stout descending processes, the 

 very slender zygomas, and the fact of the almost entire abortion 

 of the squamosal processes, these latter failing completely to meet 

 the rather larger postfrontal process in front of them, on either 

 side. Otherwise the skull of this bird is remarkably fowllike. 



It has 15 free vertebrae in the cervical region, and four succeed- 

 ing ones fuse together in the dorsum [pi. 4, fig. 21]. There is but 

 one free one between this latter and the pelvis. The pelvis is very 

 galline in its general form and structure, more so even than that 

 of the turkey or any of the grouse. Its consolidated sacrum, how- 

 ever, projects behind beyond the ilia — the reverse being the case 

 in G. bankiva [fig. 13, 14]. Five free vertebrae make up its 

 tail skeleton, to which 'must be added the rather large and lofty 

 pygostyle. In the arrangement of its ribs it agrees with Meleagris. 

 Rather broader than we find them among the chickens, the scapulae 

 also differ in having their hinder ends carried to blunt points ; and 

 the coracoids are long with their sternal ends not much dilated. 



