Position of the Ear in the Woodcock. 557 



shew, by constructing various angles, in how little the skull 

 of the Woodcock really differed from that of other birds ; and 

 thereby he has obscured some really striking facts in regard 

 to these changes which have been brought about in the form 

 of the cranium aud its relation to the beak, to which we shall 

 return presently. The outline diagrams (text-fig. 5, A, B) 

 of the skulls of the Gannet and Woodcock will shew at a 

 glance the relative changes of position between the aperture 

 of the ear and the eye, while iu text-figs. 3 and 4 the changes 

 in the form of the brain-case are no less strikingly demon- 

 strated. Thus, in the Gannet a line through the occipital 

 condyle at right angles to the basicranial axis of the skull 

 passes through the foramen magnum — that is to say, passes 

 out behind the brain-case ; but a similar line through the 

 occipital condyle of the Woodcock passes through the middle 

 of the brain-case ! 



And now as to the relation of the beak to the long axis 

 of the cranium. In the more primitive skulls — as, for 

 example, in the Gannet and Guillemot — the basicranial 

 axis and the long axis of the beak run parallel one to 

 anotlier, while in the Woodcock the long axis of the beak 

 runs almost at right angles to the basicranial axis. By the 

 shortening of this axis the cranium has become tilted back- 

 wards, or, more correctly, as the base of the cranium 

 shortened the foramen magnnm was brought nearer the 

 base of the beak, thereby throwing the floor of the meten- 

 cephalic fossa into a vertical position, and bringing the 

 cerebellar fossa into such a position that it now lies beneath, 

 instead of behind, the cerebral fossa — a truly remarkable 

 case of shifting parts. 



Summary. 

 Prof. D'Arcy Thompson, in the article to which reference 

 has already been made, remarks : " The Woodcock's ear is 

 very little, if at all, out of its normal place when looked at 

 in relation to the base, or hinder part of the skull. In 

 other words, it is not the Woodcock^s ear, but its bill that is 

 abnormally situated.'' But the weight of evidence, it seems 



