96 The Philippine Journal of Science isis 
trachea; they are quite ordinary, which is likewise true of such 
ossifications as are met with in the larynx. 
The pectoral limb. — All the bones of either limb in Porphyrio 
are entirely nonpneumatic, and this is apparently the case in 
Fulica, Gallinula, and their near congeners in various parts of 
the world. In Gallinula, when the skeleton is carefully cleaned 
and bleached, the humeri — as is the case in all the bones — are 
extremely light and creamy white; but they present no pneu- 
matic foramina at the sites where, when present, they occur 
in the vast majority of birds. All the bones of the limbs in 
PorphyHo, even when carefully prepared, are dark and greasy — 
at least this is the case with those before me, and they were 
prepared at the United States National Museum.^ 
In their morphology the pectoral limb bones in Porphyrio 
and Fulica americana are wonderfully similar, the several 
bones being somewhat shorter and correspondingly slenderer 
in the latter species. The humeral shaft in the coot is a 
shade stouter. In Porphyrio the bone has an extreme length 
of 7.8 centimeters; in Fulica, 7.5 centimeters. Were these two 
bones found fossil, they would never be described by any com- 
petent avian palaeontologist as having belonged to represent- 
atives of different genera. In the humerus of the coot the 
pneumatic fossa is deeper and somewhat more circumscribed; 
and this, apart from the difference in length, is the only distin- 
guishing character of any consequence. 
The form of the humerus in PorphyHo is well shown in Plate 
I, figs. 1 and 6. It will be noted that the radial crest is very 
low (fig. 6) ; and the notch, or valley, between the humeral 
head and the thickened proximal portion of the ulnar crest 
overarching the pneumatic fossa is notably deep and character- 
istically conspicuous. 
Radius is nearly straight and inclined to be slender, while 
the ulna exhibits considerable curvature, thus insuring, in the 
articulated skeleton, a rather broad “interosseous space.” 
Radiale and ulnara of the carpus present the usual ornithic 
characters and articulations. The shafts of the carpometacarpus 
are long and slender (fig. 1), and the pollex phalanx supports 
a free claw at its distal end; but no such claw occurs on the 
terminal phalanx of the index digit. 
The general characters of the pelvic limb may be well seen in 
Plate II, fig. 8. 
’ I am inclined to believe that Mr. Scollick made no attempt to degrease 
or bleach this skeleton. 
