184 Shvfelgt, Material for a Study of (he Megapodiidcr. [,sf'"ian 



vacuolate posteriorly in Talegalla. They do not nearly come into 

 contact in the middle line. In Megacephalon these bones are 

 spongy plates, which do nearly come into contact ; the palatines, 

 slender in both lairds, are more bowed in Talegalla, and thus 

 enclose a wider inter-palatine vacuity. The lacrymals of Talegalla 

 are small and anchylosed to the skull wall ; the ectethmoids are 

 thin plates. A curious difference in the skulls of these two birds 

 concerns the nasals and premaxillarics. In Megacephalon there 

 is nothing worthy of special remark, except the tumid outer part 

 of the nasals ; in Talegalla the premaxillary process of the nasals 

 approach each other in the middle line, and cut the nasal process 

 of the premaxillary into two — an anterior and a posterior portion." 



The V-shaped mandible of Megacephalon has very much the 

 shape of that bone in Galliis and other tetraonine species (figs. 34, 

 36, and 38). The ample symphysis is concave superiorly, and 

 correspondingly convex below. The edges of all the free borders 

 are rounded off, and the " splenial vacuity " is entirely closed in 

 by the surrounding bones. 



The " articular facets " are very shallow, while both the internal 

 and posterior angular apophyses are well developed. 



Both the skull and the jaw are largely pneumatic. 



Neither the sclerotal plates of the eyes, nor the bones of the 

 tongue (hyoid arches) were preserved by the collector of this 

 specimen ; consequently I can say nothing with respect to such 

 characters as they may present. 



Beddard says {loc. cit., pp. 296, 297) that " Garrod has also 

 described and figured the syrinx of the Megapode Megacephalon 

 inaleo* It is rather peculiar in form, but has a pair of intrinsic 

 muscles, which reach the first bronchial semi-ring ; in this point 

 the syrinx is more primitive than that of other Galli." 



Beddard also gives us a few notes on the vertebral column and 

 certain " soft parts " {loc. cit., pp. 300-302) of the maleo. 



The Vertebral Column (Plate XVIII., fig. 40, and Plates XIX., 

 XX., figs. 42-44). — Maleo has 15 cervical vertebrce in the skeleton 

 of its neck ; and, as avian vertebrae go, they are of a simple 

 character. In the atlas, its " cup " is rather deeply notched above 

 for the odontoid process of the axis, and it has a rudimentary 

 haemal spine. This is practically absent in the axis, while it has a 

 low, tuberous, haemal one, with short, thick postzygapophyses. 

 Both these spines are rudimentary in the third cervical, and 

 practically absent in the fourth. Then both these vertebrae have 

 a quadrilateral form when viewed from above, due to the osseous 

 connection between their pre- and post-zygapophyses. In them, 

 too, the vertebral artery, upon either side, passes through lateral 

 canals, which are entire and have rudimentary, backward- 

 projecting pleurapophyses upon them. Ventrally, between these, 

 ^n the sixth to the tenth vertebrae inclusive, is to be seen the open 



* Dr. Beddard reproduces these figures in the work quoted (fig. 150). 

 Front and back view of the syrinx of Megacephalon maleo. 



