34 



Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



i^irosfn's. It is a thin spearhead -shaped lamina of bone, pointed in 

 front, bifurcated behind, where either fork fuses with the ascending 

 l)rocess of the corresponding palatine. On the under side of this 

 horizontally disposed vomer there is a^ thin, vertical, median crest, 

 which in front merges into the free pointed extremity, while posteriorly 

 it is produced backwarcis by two vertical plates which grasp and ride 

 upon the rostrum. These latter are the bifurcations to which I have 

 just alluded. In JV. Iiiidsouiciis and N'. pluTopiis the anterior tij) of the 



-,-,'•-- prrx 



Fig. II. Basal and superior views of the skull of A^ioiioiiiis loiii^irosfris, natural 

 size ; A, the basal view, lower mandible removed ; K, the superior view, like lettering 

 designating like parts. />»ix, premaxillary ; t, vomer ; //, palatine ; w, maxillary ; ;;, 

 nasal ; eth, lateral wing of ethmoid ; /, lacrymal ; q, quadrate ; //, pterygoid ; />;/, 

 foramen magnum ; sf, supra-occipital foramen ; also in A, sJt, the subnarinal bar, and 

 sn' its position in dotted lines as drawn away from the premaxillary on either side. 

 In B, i, the point of meeting of nasal and maxillary. 



vomer is bifurcated. As a rule the maxillo-palatines are not as much 

 curled as we find them in the Plovers, and the union with the palatine 

 is more extensive. As in the Plovers, however, they are riddled with 

 perforating foramina ; more frequently the foramina in either maxillo- 

 palatine plate merge into two regularly suboval ones. 



