Dr. J. IMurie on the Motmots and thei^ Affinities. 385 



segment is low and depressed, the middle premaxillary rods, 

 without great elevation, meeting the former at the transverse 

 cranio-facial hinge. Nostrils moderate-sized, situated well back, 

 but with a broadish portion of nasal bone behind. 



In the posterior or occipital face the postfrontal processes 

 {Pf. fig 5) outflank the part behind, and descend, with slight 

 obliquity, outwards. The superior median parietal groove is 

 shallow, the temporal much better marked, leaving a narrow 

 deepish interspace betwixt the postfrontal and zygomatic pro- 

 cesses. The occipital bones are altogether flattish and low. 



The inferior base of the skull agrees in contour with the view 

 from the top. The orbital vacuity, here bounded by the jugal, 

 pterygoid, and palatal plate, is long and moderately wide. The 

 pterygoids are situate far back. Basitemporal area decidedly 

 short, though widish, and the foramen magnum comes into full 

 view. 



In profile, from the point of the beak to the eye is longer than 

 from the lachrymal to the occiput. There is a gentle steady 

 curve from tip to root of the prsemaxilla, without it being verti- 

 cally deep at any point. Orbit relatively large. The forehead 

 at first rises a little abruptly, and is nearly at full height mid- 

 orbitally. The postfrontal and zygomatic {z, fig. 6) processes 

 and the lachrymal do not encroach much into the orbit. The 

 occipital surface presents a wide and open angle perpendicularly. 



In examination of the bones individually, there is noticeable 

 a linear shallow elliptical groove, fully half an inch long at the 

 anterior apex of the palate ; this is continued as a single median 

 sulcus backwards to the maxillo-palatines. The palatal surface 

 of the prsemaxillje, transversely and longitudinally, shows a 

 shallow concavity ; and the maxillary depressions are acutely 

 angular. Maxillo-palatines spongy, large, and meet each other 

 in the middle line without absolute confluence. Their posterior 

 transverse margins are abruptly truncate. The horizontal pa- 

 latal plates cease forwards 0*3 inch on the maxillo-palatines. 

 Each is narrower than the space which separates them. Foi-- 

 wardly they are flat, but reai'wards slope inwards, leaving a lyre- 

 shaped interval 0-2 inch at widest. The postpalatine plates are 

 slightly scooped; their outer borders shear in behind eurvilinearly 



