Vol. XIII. 



1913 



~| Shufeldt, Osteology of the Red Wattle-Bird. 



margins. Posteriorly, it has a curvatui'e or concavity adapted 

 to the general form of the orbit, of which it forms the entire 

 anterior wall. 



Turning to the skull of a small species of Acanthorhynchus at 

 hand, it is to be observed that in it the pars plana are also very 

 large and concavo-convex in contour, simulating what we find 

 in many species of Trochilidce, in which family, as a rule, they are 

 immense in proportion to the size of the rest of the skull, as in 

 Archilochus alexandri. Antero-posteriorly they are considerably 

 deeper in Prosthemadera novce-zealandics than they are in A. 

 caruncnlata. 



All the species of this section of the Meliphagidce have a large 

 nasal hone, which is concave mesiad and convex externally. 



The osseous tomia of the superior mandible are sharp, and in 

 A. carunculata slightly produced below the roof of the palate. 



Creadion carunciilafus has the most of the morphology of the 

 structures here being described very different ; in fact, the skull 

 of this species comes much nearer some of the congeners and 

 representatives of the Iderida, and its consideration has only been 

 introduced here with the view of exhibiting how it and its near 

 afhnes depart from the Meliphagidine types with respect to this 

 part of its osteology. Still, the departures here are not as great 

 as those presented by these parts of the skull in Cinnyris chalyhea, 

 a species belonging to a large genus of the NectariniidcB, and 

 considered to be much nearer related to the Meliphagidine Red 

 Wattle-Bird than is any member of the family to which Cfeadion 

 carnnculatns belongs. Indeed, we find in Cinnyris chalyhea the 

 big pars plana, the hair-like quadrato-jugal bar, and the still finer 

 nasal hone, together with some of the associated osseous structures 

 of the face in this bird, very much as they are found in any of 

 the typical Humming-Birds of the Trochilidce. Particularly 

 does this apply to the marvellously attenuated )iasal hone, so 

 different from what we meet with in this respect among the 

 ordinary Passer es. 



With respect to the skulls of such species as Oreomystes bairdii 

 and Himatione parva of the family Drepanididce, it may be said 

 that they approach, in all their general characters, nearer to 

 many of the North American Warblers (MniotiUidcB) than to any 

 of the Meliphagidce as a whole, or to Anfhochcera carunculata in 

 particular. Little or nothing would be gained by comparing such 

 forms with our subject here, and we therefore pass them by. Even 

 Himatione sanguinea, with its longer and more curved beak, falls 

 in the same category, though it may be a bit — a very slight bit 

 — nearer than the two first-mentioned species. Birds of the 

 genus Himatione, and especially H. sanguinea, possess the most 

 extraordinary palatine bones, the postero-external angles being 

 drawn out into long hair-like processes, while the rest of the 

 bone, on either side, is but slightly stouter, rendering the entire 

 structure one of extreme delicacy. 



Already I have remarked, in another connection, that " so 



