OSTEOLOGY OF BIRDS 



339 



Since the above remarks were written (1894) a very important 

 work, in four volumes, on avian classification has appeared. I 

 refer to Dr R. Bowdler Sharpe's Hand-List of Birds (1899). In 

 volume 1 [p. xviii, xix] he classifies the Anseres in the following 

 manner: 



NO. OF NO. OF 



ORDERS FAMILIES SUBFAMILY GENERA 



XIX Phoenicopteriformes. . Phoenicopteridae 6 



Fam. ign. 1 1 



XX Anseriformes Anatidae 11 76 



XXI Gastornithiformes . . . . Gastornithidae 5 



In this classification the Ardeiformes precede the flamingoes, 

 and the Ichthyornithi formes follow the Gastornithiformes. 



The present writer has also completed a scheme of Classification 

 of the Class Avcs and in it the following arrangement occurs : 



SUPERSUBORDER SUBORDER FAMILY 



XVIII Palamedeiformes Palamedeae Palamedeidae 



( Gastornithidae 



XIX Anseriformes Anseres -j 



( Anatidae 



( Palaeolodidae 



XX Phoenicopteriformes Phoenicopteri .....■] 



( Phoenicopteridae 



In this classification the Columbiformes precede the Palamedei- 

 formes, or the screamers, and the suborder Herodiones of the 

 supersuborder Pelargiformes follows the flamingoes. 



With regard to the osteology of the screamers (Palamedeae) 

 and the flamingoes (Phoenicopteri) the author of the present 

 bulletin has published contributions in reference to both of these 

 groups. The one treating of the screamers is a paper entitled 

 " On the Osteology and Systematic Position of the Screamers " 

 (Palamedeae: Chauna) that appeared in The American Naturalist, 

 [Boston, Mass., June 1901. v. 35, no. 414, p. 455-61, 1 pi.], while the 

 one treating of the flamingoes is a paper entitled the " Osteology of 

 the Flamingoes " that appeared in the Annals of the Carnegie Mu- 

 seum [Pittsburg, Pa., 1901. 1:295-324, pi. 9-14]. It will be 

 observed that these groups have been placed upon either side of 

 the Anseres in my classification, as pointed out in a former 

 paragraph. 



AFFINITIES OF THE ANSERES 



So far as paleontology has, up to the present time, been able 

 to throw any light upon the subject, there seems to have been 

 a period in the very early ancestry of birds, when the recent groups 



