xv, i Shufeldt: The Monkey -eating Eagle 35 



of bone compressed from side to side, with a finely pointed, free 

 anterior apex; and, further, it is ununited posteriorly with the 

 palatines. 



Pithecophaga possesses large, spongy maxillopalatines that fill 

 up a good part of the rhinal chamber, being carried far to the 

 front above the prepalatines, where they appear to merge to 

 a slight degree. They are separated for their entire length in 

 Aquila, but extensively fuse in Halixetus leucocephalus , where 

 they form a nearly solid roof in the mouth in connection with 

 prepalatines and maxillaries. 



Pithecophaga has a very solid bony nasal septum, as has the 

 white-headed eagle; while in the golden eagle a good-sized va- 

 cuity may occur at the posterior superior angle. 



The hinder part of a palatine in any true eagle has the postero- 

 external angle rounded off, the bone in this locality being rather 

 broad, with its inner margin produced and turned down, and 

 its outer one to some degree thickened. In this part of their 

 extent the palatines are in contact with each other, clasping the 

 vomer between them anteriorly and the sphenoidal rostrum 

 above. 



The basipterygoidal processes are entirely absent in the skulls 

 of all the eagles at hand at this writing, save in the case of the 

 golden eagles, where they are represented by small triangular 

 prickles, flattened from above downward. A lip of bone usual- 

 ly underlaps the entrances to the carotid arteries. 



Pithecophaga — and other species of eagles depart but little 

 from it — presents a triangular area for the basitemporal space 

 of the cranium, with a marked depression just anterior to the 

 hemispherical occipital condyle. The foramen magnum is large 

 and nearly circular in outline. A superoccipital prominence is 

 fairly well developed in all these eagles, including the Korean 

 species. 



Although the "occipital area" is well defined, the ridge that 

 exists to mark its limitations is not much raised. This is also 

 true of the "crotaphyte fossae," which are extremely shallow, 

 subcircular in outline, and widely separated posteriorly. At the 

 side of the cranium the crotaphyte fossa extends over onto the 

 external surface of the postfrontal apophysis. 



The cranial capacity is only of moderate proportions, when 

 taken in conection with the balance of that part of the skull; 

 and this is especially true of the cranium of Pithecophaga. 



Laterally, the osseous aural apertures are much exposed; in 

 life, however, the soft structures of the internal ear are more or 



