70 AVES. 



far forward and horizontal, so that the cranium is very much 

 rounded. In the Rapaces, Passeres, and Scansores, as also in 

 many of the Grallae and Brevipennes, the cranium exhibits, par- 

 ticularly upon its back part, very smooth convexities, and is devoid 

 of those singular muscular ridges which occasionally, as in the 

 Gulls and Herons, form high ridges corresponding in situation with 

 the direction of the lamboidal suture, and to which the muscles of 

 the neck are attached. Young birds have a rounder form of skull 

 than adults. There is found not unfrequently situated above the 

 foramen magnum, and chiefly in the superior portion of the occipi- 

 tal bone, a considerable opening or fontanelle, filled up only by 

 ligaments, e. g. in many Grallae and Palmipedes, as the Goose. 

 Duck, Crane, Snipe, Flamingo, Spoonbill, and Ibis, while this 

 structure is often wanting in very closely-allied genera. In the 

 Cormorant (Carbo), at least in the larger species of that genus y 

 there is situated loosely upon the posterior surface of the occipital 

 bone, to which it is attached merely by ligament, a long pyramidal 

 and accessory bone, directed straight backward. In the sphenoid 

 bone we distihguish a mostly narrow body (spine-shaped anteriorly) 

 directed forward, as also the alae majores, which confluent with 

 it at an early period, are perforated by the openings for the fifth 

 pair of nerves, and give off in the direction outward and downward 

 a peculiar hook-shaped process, or postero-superior jugal pro- 

 cess': This process is occasionally very strongly hook-shaped, as 

 in Buceros. It coalesces occasionally, as in the Gallinae, with an 

 inferior process of the same name, coming from the temporal bone, 

 so that an aperture is thus formed between them. In the Parrots it 

 is developed to the greatest degree, and projects far forward, so 

 that in many of the species it coalesces with the lacrymal bone, and 

 forms an arch beneath the orbits ; this occurs also in Scolopax rus- 

 ticola. A peculiar pair of distinct and mostly narrow style-shaped 

 bones converging together anteriorly, which articulate in front with 

 the palate bones, behind with the ossa quadrata, and often, by 

 means of a third joint in the middle, with the body of the sphe- 

 noid, may be regarded as the inferior wings of that bone. These 

 inferior wings, called by other writers ossa communicantia, exhibit 

 in other respects mauy diversities. They are short and thick in the 

 Gallinae, most frequently long and style-shaped, as in the Rapaces, 

 and Passeres, and most of the Grallae, Palmipedes, and Picariae. In 

 the Woodpeckers they support superiorly a free process. Their third 

 broad articulation provided with a smooth cartilage occurs, e. g. in 



