702 Mr. P. R. Lowe on the 



of Erolia and Rhynchcpa is to be noted. The interorbital 

 region of Ccenocorypha is, however^ suggestively Eroliine, 

 that of RhynchcEa Tringine. 



Narrow as the interorbital region is seen to be in the 

 present-day skull of C. pusilla (fig. 4), it is still narrower 

 in two subfossil examples dug up with other fossil bird- 

 remains on the Chathams. The comparative measurements, 

 for example, are as follows: — In C. pusilla the width was 

 4 mm. ; whereas in the two subfossil forms of C. pusilla it 

 was 3*5 mm. and 3*0 mm. respectively. Tlie last-mentioned 

 measurement represents roughly the width of the inter- 

 orbital region in Erolia alpina (fig. 3). 



Transferring our scrutiny to the anterior portion of the 

 skull, it is obvious that in the Chatham Island Snipe the 

 premaxilise and associated processes are very distinctly more 

 Rusticoline in form and structure than Gallinagine. The 

 premaxillic and premaxillary processes of a typical Woodcock 

 and a typical Snipe are easily to be distinguished. Want 

 of space forbids a detailed description of the differences, but 

 in PI. V^III. figs. 4-7 the four preraaxillse easily group them- 

 selves into two categories — Rusticoline and Gallinagine. 

 We woidd draw attention, however, to the spatulate and 

 flattened condition of the foveated ends of the premaxillse 

 in the Gallinagine type, to their thin flexible nature, to the 

 flattening out of the cul men-ridge at the foveated extremity, 

 to the way in which the more rounded and slender maxillary 

 processes of the preraaxillae underlie the culmen-ridge in 

 Gullinugo (not, I think, due to elastic tension in the dried 

 skeleton), and to the different detailed character and extent 

 of the sculpturing, in relief, of the honeycomb-like circular 

 or oval cells so characteristic of the foveated end of the 

 bills in the Scolopacinee and Eroliinae (c/. also ' Ibis,' 1915, 

 p. 612). 



The premaxillje of the Rusticoline type present exactly 

 opposite conditions in regard to nearly all these points, 

 but perhaps the most noticeable is the wide, flattened, and 



