PICI 



maxim us is both pre- and post-acetabular in origin. 

 There is no gl. externu*. In the leg the formula is the 

 typical picarian one of AXY . Both peroneals are present, 

 as in the Rhamphastidse, and with the normal attachments. 

 The deep plantar tendons have been already described and 

 displayed (fig. 58, p. 102). 



The tongue (in M. virens) is sagittate, with horny 

 margins, and slightly lacerated apically. In a specimen 

 of Megaltzma asiatica the horny apex was bifid, quite 

 regularly so. 



The right lobe of the liver in M. virens is a little larger 

 than the left. The greatest peculiarity of the liver, however, 

 concerns the gall bladder. As in the toucans and some 

 Picidte it is of great length and intestiniform, i.e. of narrow 

 and regular calibre ; in a specimen of M. virens it was two 

 and a half inches long. The presence of a similar gall 

 bladder has been noted in M. Franklini and in XantJw- 

 l<nna rosea. 



The intestines (devoid of cseca) are voluminous but short 

 seventeen inches in M. virens, twelve in M. asiatica. 



The syrinx of I\Iegal&ma (asiatica) is of a very simple 

 tracheo-bronchial form ; the last rings do not fuse at all, but 

 remain perfectly distinct ; there are no intrinsic muscles. 

 The extrinsic muscles are attached to the tips of the costal 

 process. 



The skull is ' segithognathous, with a desmognathous 

 tendency,' holorhinal, and without basipterygoid processes. 

 The desmognathous tendency is shown by the fact that (in 

 Mcgahcma asiatica) the maxillo-palatines may or may not 

 blend with the nasal septum. In others, e.g. Pogonorhyncliit* 

 bidentatns, the two bones (maxillo-palatines) blend com- 

 pletely across the middle line. These forms are, therefore,, 

 genuinely desmognathous, except as concerns the vomer. 

 This bone is truncated, as in the segithognathous skull, and 

 its two forward limbs join the maxillo-palatines, as in Indi- 

 cator. 



It is single (except, of course, for the anterior bifurcation) 

 in Megalcp.ma ; broader and double in Gumnobucco calvus. 



o 2 



