4 Mr. W. A. Forbes on the late Professor Garrod's 



In a large number of birds, however, the condition of 

 things is different, as will be evident from an inspection of a 

 similar view of a GulFs skull [Larus argentatus) . 



Here (see fig. 2) the posterior margin of the osseous nares 

 has a distinctly slit-like or triangular form, instead of being 

 simply concave ; hence the birds presenting this peculiarity, 

 which varies to some extent in the degree of its development 

 in different forms, may be called " schizorhinal." In most 

 of these schizorhinal forms the line joining the posterior ex- 

 tremities of the nostrils passes behind, instead of in front of, 

 the ends of the nasal processes of the prsemaxillse. When 

 the beak becomes shortened and broad at the base, however, 

 as, e. g., in the Pteroclidse, this feature nearly disappears. 

 Birds belonging to the schizorhinal group are nearly all, with 

 the exception of Platalea and Ibis, " schizognathous,^' as 

 regards their palate. The " Schizorhinse " comprise the fol- 

 lowing minor groups : — Columbidse, Pteroclidse, Turnicidae, 

 Parridse, Limicolse (except (Edicnemus, which is holorhinal, 

 therein agreeing with the Bustards), Laridse, Gruidse, Eury- 

 pygidse, Rhinochetidae'^, Plataleidse (the Hemiglottides of 

 Nitzsch) , and Alcidse. Aramus also, as shown by Prof, Garrod^s 

 later investigationst,must be included here, being schizorhinal, 

 like the Cranes. All these birds, it may be noticed, belong 

 to the Homalogonatous series, possessing, at least normally, 

 the ambiens muscle, presently to be referred to. In 1877 

 Prof. Garrod discovered that a similar conformation of the 

 skull, as regards these bones, obtains in certain of the South- 

 American ''^ Formicarioid •'^ Passeres — that is, in Furnarius 

 and some of its allies f [Leptasthenura, Synallaoois, Sclerurus, 

 and Phlceocryptes) , as may be seen in fig. 3, where that of 



* To these may be added, as I have Prof. Garrod's authority for domg, 

 Mesites, as is shown by M. A. Mihie-Edwards's investigations (v. Ann, 

 Sc. Nat. ser. 6, vii. art. no. 6), The Kallidee, with which that naturalist 

 associates Mesites, are all holorhinal, at the same time that they lack the 

 powder-down patches of Mesites, Rhinochetus, and Eurypyga. 



t P. Z. S, 1876, p. 275. 



X " Note on the Anatomy of Passerine Birds.— Part II.," P. Z. S, 1877, 

 pp. 449-452. 



