XIV, 1 Shufeldt: Osteology of Porphyrio 93 
from the second |;o the eighth dorsal vertebra — ^the latter the 
last of the series — they are in contact at all of their superior 
angles, each vertebra with the one next behind it. The anterior 
and posterior margins of these neural spines are concave in 
outline and sharp. This, in the articulated skeleton, leaves 
elliptical vacuities among them (Plate III, fig. 11). There are 
linking metapophyses on the superior outer extremities of the 
transverse processes of all these dorsal vertebrse ; while in Fulica 
the neural spines above are lashed together through the ossifi- 
cation of the tendons of the muscles of the back. 
As will be noted from Plate III, fig. 11, of the present article, 
the dorsal ribs of Po7'phyrio are long and slender, as in the case 
of all true coots and gallinules, with costal ribs, or hsemapo- 
physes, to correspond with them. The leading five support epi- 
pleural appendages — six in Fulica. There is always a pair 
of slender pelvic ribs; but the costal ribs of this pair do not 
articulate with the sternum.^ 
The pelvis. — Porphyrio has a pelvis that is shorter and 
broader than it is in Fulica and in the gallinules — relatively 
with respect to the latter ‘and actually with respect to the 
former. This increased breadth is especially marked in the 
postacetabular portion of the bone; it is also of denser and 
heavier build in the big gallinule of the Philippines than in 
the other forms mentioned. 
The preacetabular portion is elongate, narrower, and markedly 
concaved on the external iliac surfaces, which in Poi'phyrio 
fuse with the superior margin of the presacral vertebrse for its 
full length, completely closing up the iliac-neural posteriorly. 
Curiously enough, in the coots and gallinules the inner margin 
of the middle third of the preacetabular part of either ilium 
is concave and sharp, thus sweeping below the superior margin 
of the sacral crista, between the anterior third of the crest and 
the posterior, which latter is opposite the acetabulse. At this 
interval the inner margins of the ilia are not in contact with 
^ When the present paper had been finished up to this point, there came 
to hand a “complete” disarticulated skeleton of a Gallinula (No. 18889, 
United States National Museum). It is from an adult individual collected 
by Dr. W. L. Abbott on He St. Louis, of the Seychelles. The skull, hyoid 
arches, vertebrae, and ribs in this species of gallinule resemble those parts 
of the skeleton in Fulica more than they resemble the corresponding bones 
in the skeleton of Porphyrio. It is to be noted, however, that the curious 
processes on the mandible found in Fulica are not present in this Gallinula; 
while the cranium, on the other hand, agrees in all respects with that 
of Fulica, and consequently exhibits the same differences when we come 
to compare it with the cranium of Porphyrio. 
