296 Mr. F. E. Beddard on Photodilus badius. 



difference between their anterior and posterior regions that 

 there is in the latter genus. In this particular also they 

 approach Strix. Furthermore, in Syrnium and Bubo the 

 postero-internal edge of the palatine is sharply bent down ; 

 this is hardly marked in Strix or Photodilus. 



In comparing the skulls of Strix and Bubo the presence 

 of two minute supraorbital bones in the latter is very notice- 

 able ; these are attached rather nearer to the anterior than 

 to the posterior margin of the orbit. In Strix, where the 

 configuration of the orbit from above is entirely different, 

 the same bones, if present, are not conspicuous, but must be 

 attached to supraorbital processes placed much further back. 



Syrnium and Photodilus are midway between these two 

 extremes. 



As the skull of Photodilus studied by Milne-Edwards* 

 was incomplete anteriorly, I have thought it worth while 

 to introduce some figures (figs. 2, 2 a, p. 297) into this paper 

 illustrative of certain facts which cannot be shown properly, 

 for the reasons stated, in Milne-Edwards's figures. 



Milne-Edwards mentions particularly the absence in 

 Photodilus of those occipital convexities which are so striking a 

 feature in the skull of Strix; they are not, however, com- 

 pletely absent from the Bubonidee, though, if present (as in 

 Nyctea), they are very much less developed. 



In Syrnium, as in Photodilus, they are completely absent. 



The temporal fossse, as Milne-Edwards has remarked, are 

 deep, but they are not continuous with depressions appearing 

 on the occipital region of the skull ; it is rather important 

 to direct attention to this character, because it seems to be 

 diagnostic. 



Strix flammea agrees with Photodilus, but in Bubo, Asio, 

 Speolyto, Nyctea, Ketupa, and Syrnium there is a deepish 

 fossa on each side of the head, which may be seen from 

 behind to be a prolongation backwards of the temporal 

 fossa. In this particular, therefore, the skull of Photodilus 



* u Observations sur les affinity zoologiques du genre Photodilus, v etc., 

 Nouv. Arch. Mus. 2 e sei\ t. i. (1878), p. 185. 



