164 



GENERAL ORNITHOLOGY. 



gloping with less distinction in front toward the orbital cavity. In this auditory hollow may be 

 seen several openings: the meatus or proper ear-passage, through which, in one direction, a 



bristle may be passed to emerge at or near 

 the middle line of the base of the skull, 

 about the root of the basisphenoidal ros- 

 trum. Such a passage is through the first 

 visceral cleft of the early embryo, modi- 

 fied into meatus auditorius and eustachian 

 tube, which latter communicates Math the 

 back part of the mouth. Besides the other 

 ear-passages proper, may be found other 

 openings of air-passages leading into the 

 interior diploic tissue of bones of the 

 skull, and especially into the lower jaw 

 bone. The ear-parts are immensely de- 

 veloped in owls, in many species of 

 which they are unsymmetrical, that is, 

 not sized and shaped alike on right and 

 left sides of the head. 



The Sphenoid (Gr. (t^iji/, sphen, a 



wedge ; ddos, eidos, form ; tigs. 62, 70, 

 71) is a compound bone, not easy to un- 

 derstand as it occurs in birds, as much 

 of it is hidden from the outside, some of 

 it is very slightly developed, and all of it 

 is completely consolidated with surround- 

 ing bones in the adult. It is wedged 

 into the very midst of the cranial bones 

 proper, with its body in the middle line 

 below, next in front of the basioccipital, 

 and its wings spread on either side in the 

 orbital cavity. A sphenoid consists es- 

 sentially of the basisj)henoid, or main 



Fig. 70. —Ripe chick's skull, longitudinal section, viewed 

 inside, x 3 diameters ; after Parker. In the mandible are seen : 

 mk, remains of meckelian rod ; d, dentary bone ; sp, splenial ; 

 a, angular ; sri, surangular ; ar, articular ; iaj), internal articu- 

 lar process; jiajy, posterior articular process. In tlie skull : im, 



the original prenasal cartilage, upon which is moulded the pre- . . „ . 7- j 



maxillary, pa-, with its nasal process, npa-, and dentary process, P^rt ot the bone (tig. bZ); the aiisphe- 

 dpx ; sn, septo-nasal cartilage, in which is seen nn, nasal nerve; noids or " wingS," on either side (figS. 70, 

 7itb, nasal turbinal ; the reference line crosses the cranio-facial 



suture, the face parts and cranial parts being nearly separated 

 here by the nick seen in the original cartilaginous plate; eth, 

 ethmoid ; pe, perpendicular plate of ethmoid, which will spread 

 nearly throughout the dotted cartilaginous tract in which it lies, 

 to form nearly all the Interorbital septum ; transverse thicken- 

 ing (in some birds) below the reference line eth will form the 

 pre-frontal, or orblto-nasal septum; iof, inter-orbital foramen; 

 ^s, pre-sphenoidal region, just above which is the orbito-sphe- 

 noidal region ; 2. optic foramen ; as, alisphenoid, with 5, foramen 

 for divisions of the 5th (trifacial) nerve ;/, frontal ; sq, squamosal ; 

 p, parietal ; so, superoccipital ; asc, anterior semicircular canal ; 

 tc, a sinus (venous canal); ej), epiotic; eo, exoccipital; op. opis- 

 thotic ; po, prootic, with 7, meatus auditorius internus, for en- 

 trance of 7th nerve ; 8, foramen for vagus nerve; 6o, basioccipi- 

 tal ; bt, basitemporal ; ic, canal (in original pituitary space ; 

 fig. 66 ic) by which carotid artery enters brain cavity ; ap, basi- 

 pterygoid process; ap to rbs. rostrum of the skull, being the 

 jmrasplienoid bone underflooring the basisphenoid and future 

 Iierpendicular plate of ethmoid. (The scaffolding of the upper 

 jaw not shown, excepting px, &c.) 



71 , as) ; the obscure presphenoid, {2)s) in 

 the middle line in front of and above the 

 main body ; and the small orhito-sp)he- 

 noids. which are in fact the wings of the 

 presphenoid. The body is usually covered 

 in by the underflooring of the basitem- 

 ])oral ; it is a flat triangular plate, pro- 

 duced more or less forward in the middle 

 line as the basisphenoidal rostrum, or 

 beak of the skull. This rostrum is an 

 imjiortant thing. It forms, in fact, the 

 central axis of the base of the skull ; 

 with the mesethmoid ])late the inferior 

 border of the interorbital septum, usually 



