Osteology of the ChutJtuin hlund Sn'q^e. 703 



divaricate form of their maxillary processes (see figs. 5 and 7). 

 As regards this last point, and others, the Jack-Snipe is an 

 aberrant Gallinagine form. 



Attention is here directed to the totally different nature 

 of the premaxilla of the Painted Snipe {cf. fig. 1). It is 

 quite unlike that of any other form of Wader. It is neither 

 Kusticoline nor Gallinagine nor Eroliine, but might be 

 looked upon as aberrantly Tringine. I can see in it no 

 Ralline similarity. In Homoptilura the premaxilla is more 

 Gallinagine than llusticoline. 



Finally, there is another point, viz., one in connection with 

 the slope of the outer processes of the nasals. In the 

 Woodcock and Chatham Island Snipe these slope gently 

 forwards, making a very obtuse angle with the horizon. In 

 Gallinago and Lrjmno cry pies the slope is more violent and the 

 angle made with the horizon much less obtuse. In the actual 

 specimens this point is more striking than it might appear 

 from a description, so that in this respect the four forms 

 group themselves into a Rusticoline pair and a Gallinagine 

 pair. 



In Rhynchcea the outer nasal processes proceed forwards 

 in the same plane with and also virtually parallel with the 

 inner nasal processes — which is an anomalous condition, 

 quite peculiar in itself. The angle made with the horizon 

 is very obtuse indeed. 



Skull viewed from the lateral aspect. 



Viewed from this aspect the skull of the Chatham Island 

 Snipe presents a feature which at once arrests our attention 

 and marks this form as a particularly interesting one. In 

 the Snipes of the genera Scolopax, Gallinago, and Lymno- 

 cryptes, an examination of the skulls reveals the fact that the 

 descending process of the lacrymal, after almost losing its 

 identity by fusion with the antorbital plate, is apparently 

 continued as a thin ribbon-like plate of bone downwards and 

 backwards, to eventually meet and fuse with the post-orbital 

 process of the squamosal, so as to make the orbital rim as 



