Echinocaris and Palæopalæmon. During the past year he has published the six following articles: "Observations on the structure of Dictyophyton, and its affinities with certain sponges," American Journal of Science, Vol. xxII, pp. 132. This is accompanied with a note by Dr. J. W. Dawson. "On the structure of a specimen of Uphantænia," pp. 132, 133; “A new genus [Anthracopupa] and species of air-breathing mollusk from the Coalmeasures of Ohio, and observations on Dawsonella," American Journal of Science, Vol. xxI, pp. 125-128, with six wood-cuts; "Description of a new species of Crinoid from the Burlington limestone, at Burlington, Iowa," Bulletin No. I of the American Museum of Natural History, pp. 7-9, plates 1-2; "Remarks on Dictyophyton and descriptions of new species of allied forms. from the Keokuk beds at Crawfordville, Indiana," Bulletin No. I American Museum of Natural History, pp. 10-20, plates 3 and 4. This article contains also a reprint of Dr. Dawson's observations on Uphantænia already mentioned. Professor Whitfield is the first to announce the opinion that these and kindred bodies are closely related to the so-called glass-sponges. "Observations on the purposes of the embryonic sheaths of Endoceras and their bearing on the origin of the siphon in the Orthoce'rata," Bulletin No. I American Museum of Natural History, pp. 20-28, and three wood-cuts. Besides his stated work at the American Museum, he is engaged upon the palæontology of New Jersey. Professor Henry S. Williams has published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Natural Science, Vol. 11, No. 6, his complete paper on the "Life-history of Spirifer lævis," of which an abstract was formerly published in the American Fournal of Science.

Professor A. S. Packard, Jr., has published, in the Bulletin of Hayden's U. S. Geological Survey, a description, with figures, of a new species of fossil crayfish, under the name of Cambarus primavus. The specimens were from the lower Tertiary fish beds of Bear river, Wyoming Terr.

In the American Journal of Science, Vol. XXII, pp. 134-136, Mr. W. W. Dodge has an article announcing the discovery of Lower Silurian fossils in Penobscot county, Northern Maine.

During the past year I have published the two following works: "On certain Cretaceous fossils from Arkansas and Colorado," Proceedings of the U. S. National Museum, Vol. IV, pp. 156-139, and one plate; "Fossils of the Indiana rocks," Annual report for 1880 of the Indiana Geological Survey, pp. 103-154, and eleven plates. I have also several other works now in the printer's hand.

1 See AMER. NAT., Vol. xv, p. 832.

THE NUMBER OF BONES AT PRESENT KNOWN IN THE PECTORAL AND PELVIC LIMBS OF BIRDS.

BY R. W. SHUFELDT.

IN many birds, as the Ætomorphæ, Psittacomorphæ, Coracomorphæ of Huxley, we find at the back and upper part of the glenoid cavity, a sesamoid long known to ornithotomists as the os humero-scapulare; this bone can in no way be claimed as belonging to the category of bones that enter the pectoral limb, as it increases the articular surface of the glenoid cavity, and in so doing properly belongs to the scapular apparatus, being accessory to the shoulder girdle.

In the arm we have then but one bone, the humerus, in the forearm, or antibrachium, we find two, the radius and ulna, and in the angle formed by the articulation of the latter two with the humerus, or the elbow, we detect in many birds (Turdida and others), lodged at its posterior aspect, quite a sizable sesamoid, crescentic in form, which seems to serve the purpose of protecting the joint. It reminds one not a little of a floating olecranon. Two of these sesamoids occur at the same locality among Guillemots and Penguins (Owen).

Among raptorial birds and in some few other families, we find articulating with one or both of the long bones of the antibrachium, at the distal end or ends as the case may be, another sesamoid, the os prominens.

The vast majority of adult birds, and indeed the writer does not recall a single exception at this moment, possess two free carpal bones, the scapho-lunar and cuneiform. To these we have to add to our enumeration, several bones that are found in the wrist of some, but not all immature birds; these eventually, we know, all become anchylosed about the proximal extremities of the metacarpals. First in this list we have os magnum, the largest, that subsequently amalgamates with index metacarpal; next in order we discover the unciform (Morse), a diminutive segment found in some birds, that finally unites with the last metacarpal, and to these four the writer, two or three years ago, added a fifth and called it the pisiform. For several reasons, however, I have been induced to change the name of this segment, and have done so in a memoir elsewhere, now in press, and called it the pentosteon, it being the fifth carpal segment discovered up to date. The name is one that cannot be productive of harm nor confusion

after its true homology has been decided upon. In manus we have quite a number of bones, but we must recollect that the list here given does not occur in all birds. Immature birds, at various ages, present us with three free metacarpals; these are pretty generally, at present, taken to be the first or pollex metacarpal, second or index, and third or middle. All three of these bones anchylose together, and with certain carpals, as mentioned above, to form in the adult the bone usually known as the metacarpal, a far better name for which would be the carpo-metacarpal.

Now pollex metacarpal may support one phalanx, or one phalanx and a claw, which may be covered with the common integu-. ment, or pierce it and be sheathed with horn. Index metacarpal may possess as many as three phalanges, the last or distal one exhibiting the same conditions as the distal joint of pollex; finally middle metacarpal supports a single phalanx.

To recapitulate then, we have those adult birds that possess the fewest number of bones in the pectoral limb, presenting us with a humerus, an ulna and radius, two free carpals, a metacarpal and four phalanges, ten in all, but the complete list of the bones of the avian pectoral limb, up to the present time, are just double this number, though we do not know a single bird that can boast of having them all, either adult or young.

The following is the complete list :

Manus. Carpus.

Brachium or arm

Sesamoid of the elbow

Antibrachium or forearm

The carpal sesamoid

Two free carpals

=I= os prominens.

=2= scapho-lunar and cuneiform.

Other bones of the carpus = 3 = os magnum, unciform and pentosteon.

Very many more bones are found in the pelvic extremity of birds than we have just enumerated for the anterior limb, but as already remarked, probably no single bird, either adult or young, possesses them all.

The limb now under consideration is divided into thigh, leg, tarsus, metatarsus and toes.

To the thigh is allotted one bone, the femur, while on the other hand the leg or the next division below, has two principal long bones, a heavy one constituting the main support, the tibia, and

a lighter companion, the fibula, on its outer side. Up to the present date I know of but two free bones that occur about the kneejoint; the first of these is the patella, and this may co-exist with the cnemial ridge of tibia, as in Colymbus (Owen). The other is a free sesamoid found in some birds, in a notch at the head of the fibula (Speotyto). In at least one bird the head of the tibia, or rather its proximal extremity, may be formed by an epiphysis so large as to include in the young the extensive pro and ectocnemial ridges (Cinclus mexicanus). The fibula is never so far produced as to articulate with the tarsus or its elementary representatives. Young birds of several genera offer us for examination at the distal end of the tibia, three distinct ossifications that eventually amalgamate with that bone and with each other. These have been described by Morse and afterwards by myself in the osteology of the Tetraonidæ, as the fibulare (outer one), the tibiale (the inner one) and the intermedium (above). In many birds, i. e., Centrocercus, we find a large sesamoid in the tendons at the back of the joint formed by the tibia and tarso-metatarsus. Three bones unite to form the bone of the so-called tarsus of birds; they are the second, third and fourth metatarsals, and in immature birds we find their proximal extremities covered by an epiphysis, the centrale of Morse, that may represent the united bones of the distal row of tarsus. This epiphysis may rest just on the summit of the united metatarsals and not include that process found at the upper and posterior aspect of the bone tarso-metatarsus, the much disputed "calcaneal" process (Centrocercus), or it may dip down behind and completely include it (Cinclus). This fact will obviously do away with my terming this process the tendinous, as I did in my osteology of Lanius, and leave quite a knotty point for ornithologists to settle in the way of serial homologies. The first metatarsal is found articulating on the lower and outer edge of the inner metatarsal as the os metatarsale accessorium. A small sesamoid may be found beyond the trochleæ of the tarso-metatarsus, as in Eremophila.

The number and arrangement of the phalanges in the feet, as found in the various families and orders of birds is too well known to enter upon in so short a sketch as this simply pretends to be. The greatest, and at the same time the most usual number of separate joints, is fourteen, distributed in the order, 2, 3, 4, 5, running from first to fourth toe respectively. Among other

birds we find only thirteen, twelve and eleven, and still fewer in such forms as the ostrich and emeu.

To tabulate our list then, we find for the

In this enumeration the reader will observe that if I have left out any such ossifications as the tendons may assume, they properly belong to the muscular system.

-:0:

EDITORS' TABLE.

EDITORS: A. S. PACKARD, JR., AND E. D. COPE.

The consensus of scientific opinion regarding the mental condition of Guiteau, is at present identical with that expressed in our editorial of August, 1881. The importance of the examination of the brain of this person has not been overlooked, and an investigation has accordingly been made. The brain was delivered to some medical gentlemen of Philadelphia, and the report of one of them has been published in the newspapers. The result is about what was to have been anticipated where a simply medical expert is selected for such a work. The business of the physician being to alleviate and cure disease, his studies are chiefly in the direction of pathology (or diseased structure) and therapeutics. So the investigation of the brain of Guiteau, as reported by Dr. Shakespeare, was confined to a search for the evidence of disease. Like the other medical experts who testified during the trial, he seems to be ignorant of the science of anthropology, and of the various types of structure presented by the mammalian and especially the human brain. As was the case during the trial, the question of malformation is not referred to. Yet all mental qualities, normal and abnormal, doubtless depend on peculiarities of brain structure, such as may be totally independent of the question of disease. The study of the rela