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Show 122 DR. R. W. SHUFELDT ON THE [Feb. 3, A letter was read from Dr. Emin Pasha, C.M.Z.S., dated Bussisi (on Lake Victoria Nyanza), October 6,1890, announcing the despatch to the Society of a collection of Birds which he had made on his way up from the coast. The Secretary exhibited, on behalf of Mr. J. W . Willis-Bund, F.Z.S., a specimen of the Collared Petrel (CEstrelata torquata, Macg.), which had been shot off the Welsh coast in Cardigan Bay in December 1889, as recorded in the 'Zoologist' for 1890 (p. 454). This was the first instance of the occurrence of this South-Pacific species in the British seas. The following papers were read :- 1. O n the Question of Saurognathism of the Pici, and other Osteological Notes upon that Group. By R. W . SHUFELDT, C.M.Z.S. &c. [Eeceived January 9, 1891.] For a number of years past the doubt has been growing in my mind as to the correctness of the interpretation placed upon the osseous structures at the base of the skull in the Pici by three morphologists who are the upholders of the idea of a state of saurognathism in these birds. This doubt has been strengthened during these years by many studies of the anatomy of Woodpeckers in all stages of growth and of many species. Within the past year the osteology of all the United States genera of this group in numerous cases, including skeletons of adults, subadults, and nestlings, has been carefully reviewed by me upon ample material. This last investigation has confirmed my doubts. Of all those ornithotomists of authority who have made researches in this direction, the opinions of but three shall be adverted to here, and references will be made to Huxley, Parker, and Garrod. No blame is attached to that host of most capable systematic ornithologists who, never having dissected a Woodpecker in their lives, have in their published works more or less blindly adopted the views of those who have relegated the Pici to a saurognathous group created to contain them. As is wrell-known, among the more recent interpreters of the structures exemplified on the part of birds, Professor Huxley, in his remarkable paper which appeared in the Proceedings of this Society for 1867 on the Classification of Birds, presented the results of some of his studies of the cranial peculiarities seen among the Woodpeckers. And so impressed was he with the apparently unique condition of certain osseous structures seen at the |