SnUIK.LDr: OsiK(1I,OGV OF IHK FlAMINCOES. 301 



Dendroc\\^na aiittiiiiiialis, the ends of the two bones completely fusing 

 and thus forming an orbital osseous ring co-equal with anything we 

 find of the kind among the Parrots. 



Flamingoes have the osseous ear-cavity very much exposed, for after 

 the (]uadrate is removed there is hardly any bony protection, and it is 

 only at the back that a solid wing of good proportions semi-surrounds 

 it in that quarter. Both the Ibises and the Anseres are better off in 

 this particular; especially the first-named group. Without entering 

 upon details, I may say that upon the whole the characters of the 

 osseous ear-cavity and its most immediate surroundings in our Fla- 

 mingo agree better with those same ])arts as we find them in Beniicla 

 than they do with those in such an Ibis as Plei^adis. Turning next to 

 the base of the cranium, we find the triangular area formed by the 

 basitcniporal Xo be comparatively limited in extent. Its mid-anterior 

 apex is thin and scale-like, and the Eustachian passages are for the 

 most part oj^en canals. This is what occurs in Plegadis, whereas in 

 the aiiserine types these tubes are not thus exposed, while the median 

 point in front where they in common open is, in these birds, large 

 and conspicuous. 'Fhe hasisplicnoidal rostruvi is slender in the Fla- 

 mingo, and more or less flat upon its under side. In front it termi- 

 nates abruptly at the antero-inferior angle of the mesethmoid. The 

 paroccipital processes are but moderately developed, and the pteryapo- 

 physial ones are not found. These latter are notoriously large among 

 the Anseres, as may be appreciated by referring to my work upon the 

 osteology of that group (in MSS.). 



It is an interesting fact to note that upon the left side in the skull 

 of the Flamingo at my hand, at the site where the pteryapophysial 

 facet would be found in a Goose, for example, we observe a minute 

 " l)rickle " of bone protruding, that would lead one to suspect the 

 presence of these processes in birds allied to our subject, even did we 

 not know of its relations to the Anseres. This sometimes happens in 

 other groups, and may be the case within the group. Ibises are en- 

 tirely wanting in pteryapophysial processes. In the Flamingo, a 

 pterygoid is a short bone, being very markedly compressed in the verti- 

 cal direction, while its anterior end is considerably dilated. I am not 

 sure that these bones are in contact anteriorly (where articulated /// 

 'situ) ; as is so distinctly the case in Plegadis. Otherwise the ptery- 

 goid of the Flamingo more or less resembles that bone as it occurs in 

 the skull of the Ibis just mentioned, and very different from the ptery- 

 goid as it exists in any of the Anseres. 



