No. 2.] APHRIZA VIRGATA. 315 
more manifest again in the Turnstones, in which genus the 
occipital area is proportionately much smaller; and finally, in 
Sandpipers and Aphrviza the crest is present only as a raised 
line, which in them also bounds an occipital area of a subcircu- 
lar outline, the extremities of the boundary line terminating, on 
either side, at the apex of a paroccipital process. 
Most limicoline types have the plane of the foramen magnum 
nearly coincident with the horizontal plane; and so it is in all 
the skulls of the species now before me. But the outline of 
this great foramen of the occiput differs considerably in the 
several genera, being perfectly cordate in the Surf-bird, with 
the prominent posterior apex standing well in between the pair 
of vacuities of the supraoccipital prominence, which condition 
is enjoyed by most Z7imgee; while in Avenaria and the Plov- 
ers there is a slight’ tendency for this aperture to become 
rounder, its circularity becoming quite evident in Hematopus. 
In all these species, the condyle of the occiput is proportion- 
ately very small in each and every species, it being of a hemi- 
spherical form, and unnotched. 
So in general pattern, taken as a whole, the basi-posterior 
aspect of the cranium is more nearly alike in Aphriza and any 
true tringine form; while in Turnstones the approach is 
towards the Oyster-catchers. And Plovers in this particular 
seem to maintain sort of a mid-position between the two latter 
groups. H@matopus is notorious for the restricted confines of 
its basi-temporal area at the base of the cranium,! and this space 
is never very wide and deep in any of the Lzmzcole. 
Figure 3 of my drawings in the plate shows the skull of A. 
virgata upon direct lateral view, and here we have a number of 
points to examine. First, it will be observed that the pars plana 
is of a quadrilateral outline, thoroughly ossified, and with its 
superior and inferior borders not in contact with either the 
orbital roof above or the maxillary bar below. The out-jutting 
lacrymal sends down a spicula of bone, which diminutive process 
turns backwards to have its lower end anchylose with the pars 
1 Had not the writer already fully figured the skeleton of the Black Oyster-catcher 
(which figure and its description has been accepted for publication by the Yournal of 
Anatomy of London), I should have taken pleasure in presenting drawings of it in 
the present connection, as it constitutes a wonderfully interesting form for comparison 
in this way with species now under consideration. 
