42 AxxALs OF THE Carneche Museum. 



the woodcock and .snij)e have the al)iHty to curve up the anterior 

 extremity of the upper bill, and so far as the skull in these birds is 

 concerned the power to perform such a feat is (juite apparent. 



Passing to the cranio-frontal region, we are to note the large lacry- 

 mal which sweeps backwards to join with the post-frontal, thus com- 

 pleting the orbital periphery in bone, a very rare condition, as we 

 know, in birds. 



In the Woodcock the plate-like vomer is vertically disposed, but at 

 the same time it is exceedingly small, being drawn out in front to a 

 point of absolute hair-like dimensions. It is horizontal in Gal/iiiago, 

 and both larger and longer. In Galliiiago and in the Woodcock, too, 

 the interorbital septum is quite complete, though in the former species 

 many small deficiencies may occur in the bone on the anterior wall of 

 the brain-case in some individuals. The pterygoids are exceedingly 

 short and thick, the facet for the basisphenoid process occujjying 

 nearly the entire length of the shaft. This is especially the case in 

 FJnlohela. 



In the iiia)idible of Snipes and Woodcocks the hinder end is bent 

 down almost at a right angle, and the ramal vacuity is unusually large 

 in Galliiiago. 



The Skull in the Long-billed Do^vitcher. — In a skull of this species, 

 Macrorhaniphiis scolapaceiis, which I collected in New Mexico, I see a 

 number of characters to remind me of the skull in Gallinago, but not- 

 w^ithstanding this, the conformation of the skull, especially its cranial 

 portion, partakes more of the character of the larger Sandpipers. 



The morphology of the superior osseous mandible is as in Gallinago. 

 Superiorly, the la cry mats, however, jut out more distinctly and promi- 

 nently, and their descending portions, not at all produced backwards, 

 fuse with the large square pars plana. The post-frontal process is 

 very long and extremely slender, while the interorbital septum is not 

 so thoroughly completed in bone. Afaxillopalatines are practically 

 absorted, as indeed they are completely so in Woodcocks and Gallinago. 

 An osseous septum narium is also to be found in Macrorhamphus, 

 which, as in Wilson's Snipe, is an extension forwards of the mes- 

 ethmoid, and probably the na.sals grasp it in the middle line beneath 

 the premaxillary, but I would have to have the skeleton of a young 

 snipe to prove that point. In all these true scolopacine types the 

 zygoma is very short, straight, and slender, and inclined to be trans- 

 versely compressed (especially in Wilson's Snipe). 



