DESMOGNATHOUS PALATES 



bone-breaker, a name which is now applied to certain 

 petrels. The origin of the name from its destructive 

 qualities is quite analogous, as has been pointed out, 

 to the connexion between the words hawk and havoc, 

 and between raven and ravine. The osprey is a fish- 

 eater, but it catches its fish as a hawk does, and not as a 

 kingfisher does, for example ; it strikes the fish in fact 

 with its talons as if it were a partridge. The older 

 type of ornithological handbook used invariably to be- 

 gin with the Accipitres, as if taking to heart Chaucer's 

 recommendation 



The fowles of ravine 

 Were highest set and than the fowles smale, 



and continued with the Passerine birds. There is no 

 reason for placing the osprey and its kindred either at 

 the head or at the base of the avian series, as might be 

 implied by such a placing. But what their precise 

 place in the system should be is a matter for inquiry 

 rather than for ex cathedra statement. That they are 

 rather perfected birds in their way is shown by the com- 

 plete closure of the roof of the mouth. All birds seem 

 to start life with the maxillopalatine bones, as they are 

 termed, in non-juxtaposition, which leaves a gap in the 

 bony mouth of the roof. This condition is persisted in 

 in the Limicoline and many other birds ; but in a great 

 variety, which are not necessarily nearly akin thereby, 

 the bones have grown inwards, and met to form what 

 Prof. Huxley called a desmognathous palate. And the 

 hawks, as well as such obviously dissimilar birds as 

 the hornbills and the toucans, are of this number. The 

 hawk tribe, which embraces a vast number of forms, 

 such as the vultures of the Old World, the eagles, the 

 falcons an hawks, the kites, and the caracaras of 

 America, has not merely this character ; but they all 

 agree in the powerful talons, with strong legs to match 

 the strong and hooked bill, the cruel flat head upon which 



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