386 Dr. J. INIurie on the Motmots and their Affinities. 



and without posterioi' external palatine spicules; their approx- 

 imating edges are flanged. The palate-bones are continued half 

 an inch behind the maxillo-palatines, and are thus relatively 

 long. 



Correspondingly the pterygoid bars are short, set widely apart 

 from each other, and leave but narrow clefts between them and 

 the basitemporal. Anteriorly the pterygoid joins the rostrum 

 and palatal plate by an upwardly bent hinge, fitting partially 

 against the rostrum of the basisphenoid. The pterygoid rods, 

 though flat and tolerably straight, have a considerable twist on 

 their long axis. Jugals long and slender. 



The upper premaxillary surface presents moderate arching 

 and barely a culmen. There is a true beak-hinge transversely 

 cutting the nasals, maxillaries, and naso-premaxillary rods from 

 the prefrontals and lachrymals. The nostrils, each half an inch 

 long, are of a wide oval figure. Nasal septum partially ossified. 

 No definition exists between maxillaries and nasals. It would 

 seem, on ordinary examination, as if the lachrymals were absent 

 or lost in the specimen. But 1 have satisfied myself that they 

 exist in a very rudimentary condition, being merely anchylosed 

 ossicles to the prefrontal processes [f p, fig. 6.). In the dried 

 skull, therefore, the fissure (/) which separates the beak from the 

 prseethmoid is open, and not, as usual, partially hidden by the 

 tear-bones. The same condition of things nearly obtains in 

 some of the Bee-eaters, a membrane occupying the place of 

 or strengthening the delicate spicule or well-nigh absent infe- 

 rior lachrymal limb on each side. There is very marked pitting 

 of the nasal and frontal superficies. The interorbital portion of 

 the frontal is broad, and the triangular prefrontal processes 

 strike well outwards and downwards. Postfrontal and zygomatic 

 processes are subequal in length, but neither reaches the jugal. 

 Temporal groove short, but well impressed. The basioccipitals 

 and basitemporal are not very uneven. Eustachian cavity large, 

 rostrum of basisphenoid short. 



Interorbital septum well nigh closed by an ossific plate. There 

 is an orbito-sphenoid ridge. Orbital limb of the quadrate 

 largish, but the bone altogether only moderately high. Inferior 

 knuckles two in number, set at right angles to each other. 



