OSTEOLOGY OF BIRDS 



335 



Appendicular skeleton. Of all of the bones of the pectoral and 

 pelvic limbs, the only ones that are pneumatic are the humeri, and 

 these are completely so. Apart from the greater lengths and cali- 

 bers or other proportions of the bones of the wings and the legs 

 of this swan, the general and special characters they exhibit arc 

 identical in all particulars with the corresponding ones as they 

 have been described above for the bones composing the limbs in 

 Branta canadensis. 



The humerus has a length of 25.5 centimeters; the ulna of 24.4 

 centimeters; the carpometacarpals of 12.7 centimeters; the proximal 

 phalanx of index digit of 5.3 centimeters; and its distal joint of 

 4 centimeters. In the pelvic limb, I find the femur to have a length 

 of 9.8 centimeters; the tibiotarsus of 19.6 centimeters; the tarso- 

 metatarsus of 11. 2 centimeters; the basal phalanx of mid anterior 

 toe of 5.1 centimeters; the next joint beyond of 3.4 centimeters; 

 the next of 3.1 centimeters; and the chord of the ungual phalanx 

 (not including its horny covering) of 1.8 centimeters. 



NOTES ON FOSSIL ANSERES 



As has already been slated in the first part of the present bulletin, 

 the author some years ago described a number of fossil Anseres 

 from the Silver Lake region of Oregon in his contribution entitled 

 A Study of the Fossil Avifauna of the Equus Beds of the Oregon 

 Desert [Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. Jour. 1892. 9:389-425, pi. 15-17]. 

 Some 15 or 16 species of these are still represented in the existing 

 avifauna of the United States. They belong chiefly to the genera 

 Lophodytes, Anas, Spatula, Aix, Marila (?), Clangula, Anser, 

 Branta and Chen. An extinct goose, Anser condoni, was 

 considerably larger than any of our existing swans, while O 1 o r 

 paloregonus Cope, was a swan very much bigger than our 

 now existing Olor buccinator. Fossil remains of swans 

 (Cygnus) have also been found in the Pleistocene of Malta as 

 Cygnus falconeri Parker [Lydekker Cat. Foss. B. p. 108, 

 and another species on p. no], and in the Pliocene of Belgium as 

 C. herrenthalsi, Van Beneden [Acad. Belg. Bui. 1871. 

 32:217]. 



Purdie also describes remains of what was probably a swan from 

 the Pleistocene of New Zealand [N. Z. Inst. Trans. 1871. 3:100]. 

 A fossil Sarcidiornis, of the subfamily Plectroptecinae, has been 

 discovered in the Pleistocene of Mauritius [E. Newton & Gadow, 

 Z. L. Trans. 1893. 13:290], while the fossil remains of representa- 

 tives of the subfamily Cereopsinae are also to be noted, namely 



