Folia Historico-Naturalia Musei Matraensis - A Mátra Múzeum Természetrajzi Közleményei 21. (1996)

osteological characteristics of Falcons, such as the longitudinal rib of the palatal part of os premaxillare, the differences of the shape of the cranial part of sternum, the different forms of crista medialis hypotarsi of the tarsometatarsus, etc. These features are also demonstrated with drawings. The main measurements of several species, and among them those of the species examined by the author are also given. In the case of the limbs only the longitudinal measurements are given, which was based only on a single specimen of each species. These measurements are in accordance with the averages of my data. LAMB RECHT (1914) deals with the carpometacarpus. He gives the characteristic of the ordos, within the Falconiformes he describes among others the shape of the carpometacarpus of the Falco and Cerchneis genera. ENGELMANN (1928) publishes only photographs of sternums among others from Kestrel, Hobby and Lesser Kestrel that are interesting from the point of view of osteology. RICHARDSON (1972) gives the length of the femur of F tinnunculus and F. columbarius. BÄHRMANN (1974) deals with the Kestrel from among the lesser Falcons. In the case of the sternum he measured a great number of individuals, and gives several measurements, in the case of the coracoideum and scapula he only measured the length of a few specimens. The measured big sample of sternums gives a smaller minimum and greater maximum values than my measurements, and hence yields higher percentage of standard deviation values. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The measured skeletons used for this study belong to several different museums and research institutes. I would like to thank for lending and permitting to work on their material to D. Jánossy (Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest), E. Ählander (Swedish Natural History Museum, Stockholm), J. Boessneck (Palaeoanatomy Institute, Munich), T. Balázs (collector, Hevesvezekény), Z. Bochenski (Zoological Institute of the Polish Academy of Science, Krakow), I. S. Darewsky (Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Science, St. Petersburg), H. Schifter (Natural History Museum, Wien), L. Kordos (Hungarian Geological Institute, Budapest). I would also like to express my special thanks to D. Jánossy for measuring the material of the British Museum corresponding to my research for me, and for helping my research continuously. Finally I would like to thank G. Bánkuti for developing a computer programme that enabled me to calculate the standard deviation values, T. Fuisz for translating this work into english, and K. Bánkuti for his valuable help in editing. MATERIAL The collection of the measured material took quite a long time as some of them must have been borrowed from foreign museums and research institutes. From Hungarian collections the following bones were received: Hungarian Natural History Museum (Budapest): 33 skeletons, Mátra Museum (Gyöngyös) 64 skeletons, From the private collection of Tibor Balázs (Hevesvezekény) 15 skeletons, from the Hungarian National Geological Institute (Budapest) 1 skeleton. The rest of the material belongs to foreign institutes. The majority of foreign material, 32 skeletons arrived from the Swedish Natural History Museum (Stockholm). The Palaeoanatomical Institute of the Ludwig - Maximilian University (Munich) lent 19 skeletons. The Zoological Institute of the Polish Academy of Science (Krakow) lent 9 skeletons, the British Museum (London) lent 7 skeletons, the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Science (St. Petersburg) lent 6 skeletons and the Natural History Museum (Wien) lent 1 skeleton. 6