id of W. Palearctic bird skulls

Can anyone suggest a reference to me with which I can attempt to identify some skulls of West Palearctic Passerines retrieved from owl pellets? I already have Brown, Ferguson, Lawrence & Lees (1987) but there aren't enough examples given- lots of species missing. In particular I'm interested in finches and buntings. Hope you can help, Paul Doyle Centre Manager, Conoco Natural History Centre University of Aberdeen, Scotland

P. Doyle, May be way out of my league here but we have a Western N. American avian osteology specialist who published his volume AVIAN OSTEOLOGY , 2nd. printing 1985. He lists 10 finches and 7 buntings but may have more information for your assistance. His address: B. Miles Gilbert, 3217 Cooper, Flagstaff, AZ, 86001. U.S.A. also try Larry D. Martin, MNH, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, 66045 or Howard G. Savage, Ornithology Dept. ROM, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 2C6. Sorry no e-mails for above. Diane Rice

Paul,

You have a difficult task before you. Identifying passerines down to species level would require extensive use of a very complete comparative collection. Osteological guides are useful in helping to narrow the field, but for making specific identifications it is essential to have an avian osteological collection to make comparisons. I am a zooarchaeologist and having identified bird bones from archaeological sites, I think it will be very hard to identify passerines down to the species level since passerines is a very large order and these are small birds with very similar skeletons. It may only be possible to identify them to the level of genus or even family. I am not sure how many distinctive features are present on passerine skulls. These skulls are from owl pellets you said? Do they contain other intact bones? If you have a variety of elements to look at, perhaps you can do even better.

As for references, I would suggest:

Cohen and Serjeantson (1996). A Manual for the Identification of Bird Bones from Archaeological Sites. London: Archetype Publications, Ltd.

Gilbert, Martin, and Savage (1985). Avian osteology. Arizona: B. Miles Gilbert, Publisher.

Harrison, C.J.O. (1982). An Atlas of the Birds of the Western Palaearctic. London: Collins.

Perhaps you might want to put your inquiry out on ARCH-l where you might catch the eye of other zooarchaeologists who have done similar identifications. It is a difficult task, but not impossible! I hope some of this information will be helpful.

Best of luck, Andrea Shapiro