1901.] SHUFELDT — OSTEOLOGY OF THE CUCKOOS. 15 



444) that these angles in Geococcyx "are distinctly indicated." 

 They are rounded, as he so well figures them for Cuculus canorus. x 



The inner free edge of the bone extends from the head to the 

 apex of a small pointed process in front. For nearly its entire 

 length it is parallel to the corresponding edge of the palatine ot 

 the opposite side, from which it is separated by an interval of some- 

 thing like a millimetre or rather more. From this edge the surface 

 curves outward and backward, forming the "ascending process' 1 of the 

 palatine. This terminates in another longitudinal straight margin, 

 which is applied to the corresponding one of the opposite palatine, 

 and both unite to form the usual groove at their upper aspects for 

 the rostrum of the sphenoid. These latter opposed edges also ex- 

 tend from the palatine heads, likewise in contact mesially, to a 

 common anterior process. This latter is nearly opposite the ante- 

 rior end of the rostrum, and from its extremity in front projects a 

 free, needle-like and rudimentary vomer, of some four millimetres 

 in length. It does not come in contact with the maxillo-palatines, 

 but lies above the interval formed by their slightly diverging pos- 

 terior extremities, and is freely articulated with the palatines at the 

 points from which it springs, and in the manner described. This 

 diminutive vomer is equally well developed in both my specimens 

 of Geococcyx. 



Careful search was made in all of my specimens for an ossiculum 

 lacrymo-palatinum [os uncinatum), but failed to reveal the presence 

 of any such ossicle. This diminutive bone was first described by 

 Brandt, and, as is well known, occupies at least two positions in 

 the skull. In certain Albatrosses {Diomedea brachytira) it exists as 

 a delicate styliform bar connecting the descending limb of the 

 lacrymal bone with the upper surface of the corresponding palatine. 

 Other birds have it attached to the infero-external angle of the 

 lacrymal, where it may project freely backward, or lie along the 

 upper surface of the maxillary bar beneath it. Its position in the 

 Parrots is described in my memoir on the osteology of Conurus. 



According to Forbes, " it also occurs in forms so different from 

 these [Albatrosses] as the Musophagidae, many Cuculidse, Chunga 



1 In this connection compare what I have quoted, in an early paragraph of 

 this memoir, from Professor Huxley with a footnote which appeared in my 

 " Osteology of Geococcyx" (Jo urn. of Ana t., London, p. 247), cited above. It 

 must be that the skull of Geococcyx which Professor Huxley examined was either 

 an imperfect or broken one. 



