No.2.) APHRIZA VIRGATA. 313 
the first case the long, thread-like extremities of the palatines and 
median processes of the nasals freely projecting forwards, and 
in the latter instance, a similar condition of the mid-ramal 
elements of the lower jaw. TZyvinga, Actitis, and others have 
their skulls behave in this manner, under similar circumstances, 
and it is quite characteristic of them; whereas, on the other 
hand, macerate the skulls as long as we may, no such detach- 
ment ever takes place in the Surf-bird, nor in Turnstones and 
Oyster-catchers, nor in such forms as Gallinago and Philohela. 
Indeed, this peculiar feature seems to be restricted to the more 
typical Sandpipers, and it is worthy of our notice that in Aphriza 
it never happens, and I may add that one never observes it to 
be the case in any of the Plovers. 
Aside from this fact, the general faczes of the form of the 
superior osseous mandible in Aphviza, carried back as far as the 
rhinal chamber and frontal region, is more as we find it in such 
a species as Acéz¢zs, for example, or some of the genus 77inga, 
than it has any semblance to either Avenaria, or much less 
flematopus. Even when we come to compare the individual 
parts, this assertion holds true, including in the observation the 
extensive outline of the triangular aperture, on either side, of 
the external nares ; and the superior ends of the fronto-maxil- 
lary processes of the nasals not overlapping, mesiad, the outer 
and juxtaposed margins of their premaxillary processes ; which 
latter condition obtains both in the Turnstones and in Oyster- 
catchers. Again, in Aphriza we note that the extremity of the 
superior mandible in the skull is somewhat tumefied, and marked 
over with minute pits, as we find it to be in Gallinago. This 
character is absent in such a form as Actztzs and other Sand- 
pipers, nor do we find it to be present in Charadrius, Arenaria, 
and Hematopus. 
In Bachman’s Oyster-catcher (4. bachmanz) the superior 
osseous mandible is about seven centimetres long, the remainder 
of the cranium being something over 3.5 cm. long, measured 
along the median line. Taking these same distances in the 
Black Turnstone, we find the first to be 2.5 cm., and the latter 
2.3 cm.; but barring this difference in proportion between beak 
and cranium in these two species, the superior osseous mandible 
in the Turnstone is almost the perfect miniature of that part of 
the skull in an Oyster-catcher. We are to note, however, one 
