16 W. P. PYCRAFT. 



extend to the cutting edge of the beak. The anterior nares open, each by a small round 

 hole near the middle of the inferior border of the beak ; the rim of this aperture is 

 slightly swollen. 



In the newly-hatched Ade"lie Penguin (Pygoscelis) there is an ill-defined cere, which 

 extends forwards and downwards on each side of the beak. The nostrils, however, 

 do not pierce this cere, but open beneath it. 



In the newly-hatched Catarrkactes there are at first but traces of a cere, and only 

 a very slight groove in front of the nostril. This groove, however, later becomes much 

 deepened and longer. 



Osteological Characters. 



With regard to osteology, I may remark that since I have already dealt at con- 

 siderable length elsewhere (16-17) with this subject, I have deemed it sufficient 

 here to confine my remarks to such new points as have come to light during my 

 examination of nestling skeletons of the Emperor and Adelie Penguins, and these, as I 

 have already remarked, are confined to the following cranial characters. 



The Palato-Pterygoid Articulation and Squamosal. 



The facts now to be described were gleaned from the skulls of nestlings of the 

 Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) of about eight days old. Herein (PI. fig. 7) 

 the distal end of the pterygoid is deeply notched, and while the outer limb is rounded in 

 shape and almost completely ossified, the inner is produced forward into a long, pointed, 

 bony spike, which is embedded in the yet cartilaginous mesial border of the dorsal 

 aspect of the palatine. The extremity of the palatine runs under this pterygoid spike 

 (hemipterygoid), and is received into the notch just described. Seen from below the 

 distal end of the pterygoid appears to be obliquely truncated, instead of notched, and 

 this because the inner limb of the notch is applied to the dorsal aspect of the palatine. 

 While the hinder end of the palatine is yet bounded by a rim of cartilage around its 

 free end, the process of ossification has proceeded rather further in the pterygoid. But 

 the main point to be noted is the fact that the palato-pterygoid articulation is by inter- 

 locking suture, and not by glenoid surfaces, and in this respect the skull resembles that 

 of the more primitive group, the Palseognathse (17). Later the pterygoid spike segments 

 off from the main shaft and fuses with the palatine, and thereby the skull assumes its final 

 neognathine form. But on the inner border of the distal end of the pterygoid I have 

 discovered a little rounded patch of cartilage containing a bony nodule ; from its position 

 it is possible that this may be the last vestige of the reptilian epipterygoid rod. 

 Later the ossification in the cartilage extends till the whole becomes blended with the 

 pterygoid shaft. 



Basipterygoid processes are represented only by vestiges. 



The squamosal presents one or two interesting features deserving something more 



