. Contributions to the anatomy of birds . ly appeardistinct. We observed the additional fact that the nostrils in burrovi-anus were far more pervious than those in aura even A specimen of C. pernigra we never have had the good fortune toexamine; in fact, both of these Vultures are uncommonly rare in col-lections, and *he writer has thus intentionally takeu the pains to bringout all of the data that he has at his command bearing upon these twobirds, as he must here confess to his reader that it has been found im-possible to secure a skeleton ofeither burrovianus or pernigra,so that the characte
. Contributions to the anatomy of birds . ly appeardistinct. We observed the additional fact that the nostrils in burrovi-anus were far more pervious than those in aura even A specimen of C. pernigra we never have had the good fortune toexamine; in fact, both of these Vultures are uncommonly rare in col-lections, and *he writer has thus intentionally takeu the pains to bringout all of the data that he has at his command bearing upon these twobirds, as he must here confess to his reader that it has been found im-possible to secure a skeleton ofeither burrovianus or pernigra,so that the characteristics of thegenus Cathartes must be drawnfrom its common representative,aura. We do not know of askeleton of either burrovianus orpernigra being in any of the oste-ological cabinets in the UnitedStates, and it must be left to somemore fortunate ornithotomist tocompare the osteological charac-ters of these two birds, with whatthe author hopes to bring out inregard to the genus in whichhave been placed, from theirnorthern Pseudogryphus californanus. Fourth, and lastly, we have the genus Catharista, containing the singlespecies C. atrata, the Carrion Crow, or Black Vulture. This bird is con-fined more or less to our Southern States, inhabiting particularly themaritime districts, and to various localities in South America, its habitsand tastes always being those of a true Vulture, which it is. It will beremembered that for a long time many authors placed all of our ^sorthAmerican Vultures in the one genus Cathartes; the group containing, shufeldt.] OSTEOLOGY OF THE CATHARTID^E. 731 according to Coues Key of North American Birds (1872), Cathartes cali-fornianus, C. aura, and C. atratus. They appear in Mr. BidgwaysNomenclature of North American Birds (Bull. U. S. Nat. Museum, , 1881) as we have given them above (G. papa not being included),viz, Pseudogryphus califomianus, Cathartes aura, and Catharista atrata.*We shall soon see, when the skeletology of these h
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