THE RABBIT. 269 



below by a bony bar, the zygoma : its posterior part 

 answers to the temporal fossa. 



36. The auditory aperture on each side of the hinder 

 region of the brain-case : it is formed by a sort of bony 

 tunnel, and looks upwards, outwards, and backwards. 



37. The nasal apertures, quite in front of the snout, 

 and confluent in the dry skull. 



38. The very small extent of the bony palate, which 

 is reduced to a narrow bridge running between the two rows 

 of grinding teeth (see 65 and 67). 



39. The articulation of the lower jaw to the skull directly, 

 and not through the intermediation of a quadrate bone. 



40. The distinctness of most of the bones even in adult 

 life. 



41. The long, slender processes, given off from many of 

 the bones and helping, in the dry skull, to keep the various 

 bones together. 



42. The basioccipital, a flattened bone, bounding the 

 foramen magnum below, and forming the hinder part of 

 the base of the skull and the lower third of the occipital 

 gondyles. 



43. The exoccipitals, joined btlo.w with the basi- 

 occipital, bounding the foramen magnum at the sides, 

 and forming the upper two-thirds of the occipital condyles. 

 Each is produced downwards into a paroccipital process, 

 which fits closely against the posterior surface of the bulla 

 tympani ( 54), and is perforated near its junction with 

 the basioccipital by two small apertures, the condylar 

 foramina, which transmit the hypoglossal nerve. 



44. The supraoccipital, articulated below into the 

 exoccipitals, and bounding the foramen magnum above : it 

 is a very irregular bone, with a strongly-pitted surface, and 

 marked externally by a median, escutcheon-shaped elevation. 



