Page:The Emu volume 13.djvu/13

 Jhe £mu Official Organ of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union. "Bir^s of a fcatber." Vol. XIII.] 1ST JULY, 1913. [Part i. On the Osteology of the Red Wattle-Bird (Anthochaera carunculata). By R. W. Shufeldt, M.D., Hon. Mem. R.A.O.U., Washington, D.C. On the igth of October, 1912, I received, per favour of Mr. A. J. Campbell, R.A.O.U., an excellent and complete articulated skeleton, which I understand was prepared at the National Museum, Melbourne, of an adult specimen of the Red Wattle- Bird, known to science as Anthochcera * carunculahi, one of the MeliphagidcB of Australia. It was Mr. Campbell's wish that I prepare a brief, illustrated account of the osteology of this species as a contribution to The Emu, of which he is co -editor. This request was seconded, in a letter dated 8th June, 1912, by Mr. F. Erasmus Wilson, the hon. secretary of the Royal Austral- asian Ornithologists' Union, on behalf of the Council. Mr. Campbell's letter of transmittal was dated at Melbourne, 14th September, 1912. At the time this skeleton came into' my possession for descrip- tion I had before me several hundred specimens of Pleistocene fossil birds from Oregon to work up — the task being well in hand — and I could not conveniently set it aside in order to undertake what my colleagues in the R.A.O.U. had favoured me with, and done me the honour to ask me to describe for the use of avian osteologists in Australia. I was especially pleased to get a skeleton of Anthochcera canm- cnlata to study, for I had already published descriptions of the skeletons of a very large number of the Passerine birds of the United States, with some of those of China, the Philippine Islands, and elsewhere, and expressed opinions with respect to their classification. f A few years ago I examined and compared skeletons of a number of the Coerehidce, NectariniidcB, MeliphagidcB, t Shufeldt, R. W., "An Arrangement of the Families and Higher Groups of Birds," Aiiier. Anai., vol. xxxviii., Nos. 455-456, Boston, Nov.-Dec, 1904, pp. 835-856. Also, " Contributions to the Comparative Osteology of the Families of North American Passeres," /our. Morph., vol. iii., No. i, Boston, June, 1889, pp. 81-I14, Pis, V. and VI.
 * So spelt in the new " Check-list," R.A.O.U., but formerly Acanthochccra.