;38 



Annals of 'ihf. Carnegie Museum. 



other, but, just before they arrive at the long slit-Hke ramal vacuity, 

 they dilate to become lamelliform plates compressed from side to side. 

 The up])er borders of these plates curve inwards towards each other. 

 A second small circular foramen, situated at the base of a larger con- 

 cavity, on the outer aspect of the ramus, between the vacuity and the 

 hinder end, exists in all the specimens before me, except N. hudsonicus. 

 The articular ends are of a form most common to all ordinary birds 

 of the present suborder ; they are produced posteriorly into small 

 vertical plates that turn outwards, but do not curve upwards to any 

 great extent, thus differing from what we found in the Plovers. The 

 usual ])neumatic foramina are found at the inturned apices of the articu- 



FiG. 12. Kiglit lateral views of the skulls of A'liiucititis hitilsoniciis (c, the 

 upper ligure), and A'', horcalis (d, the lower one). Natural size, pnix, the pre- 

 nuixillary ; ii, the nasal ; /, the lacrymal ; q, the quadrate ; //, palatine; a, articular ; 

 d, dentary ; //, the subnarinal bar. 



lar cups. The sutures defining the limits of the bones that originally 

 entered into the composition of the mandible in any of this genus, 

 have become almost entirely obliterated, the edge of the dentary alone 

 sometimes being persistent. 



With the exception that the ceratoliyah have fused with the glosso- 

 hyal, or the posterior part of it, as is usual among birds, all the remain- 

 ing elements of the hyobranchial apparatus of the curlew remain free 



