72 AVES. 



usually effected by means of a bony suture. The superior maxil- 

 laries, which are generally small, and removed quite to the sides of 

 the upper mandible, are united posteriorly by a slender flattened 

 jugal process to the bone of that name, so as to form a jugal arch. 

 The nasal bones are flat and mostly of considerable size, lie in front 

 of the frontals, and give off frequently two processes directed for- 

 ward, as in the Gallinae, where they are very deeply excavated so as 

 to present the form of an arch. By means of this excavation in the 

 bones, the nasal foramina coalesce posteriorly. Near to and exter- 

 nally to the nasal and frontal bones, upon the anterior edge of the 

 orbital cavity, are situated the lacrymal bones, for the most part sep- 

 arate, and exhibiting great varieties in their degree of develop- 

 ment, but which are, as a rule, however, very large, and project in- 

 feriorly into a hook-shaped process. In the Woodpeckers and Par- 

 rots they are very firmly blended with the skull ; they are very 

 small in the Gallinae, while, on the contrary, in the Spoon-bill, Al- 

 batross, and other birds, they abut against the jugal arch, and are 

 united to it by a ligament which is frequently ossified. In the Par- 

 rots and Snipes the lacrymal bone forms a ring around the orbit 

 after it has united with the jugal process of the sphenoid bone. 

 The lacrymal bone is very much developed in the Diurnal birds of 

 Prey, where it helps to form the roof of the orbit, and supports ex- 

 ternally the os superciliare, which occurs even in the . Ostriches. 

 The palatal bones exhibit important diversities. They are in 

 general two elongated slender bones, which are moveably united, 

 partly together, and partly with the sphenoid (rarely by means of 

 a suture), but are firmly anchylosed in front with the superior max- 

 illary bones. They are flat, broad, and horizontal, in the Birds of 

 Prey ; particularly broad in Caprimulgus ; narrow and not united in 

 the Passeres, with but few exceptions, such as Loxia coccothraustes, 

 where they are placed vertically, as in the Parrots ; they are very 

 narrow, especially in front, in the Gallinae ; wedge-shaped and hol- 

 lowed out into the form of a groove in many Grallae and Palmi- 

 pedes, as the Storks and Herons, and anchylosed so as to form a 

 short tube along with the vomer in Buceros ; in the Goose they are 

 perpendicular, and so also in the Parrots, where however they con- 

 sist of much broader laminse> with a strong free process given off 

 posteriorly and inferiorly ; in the Brevipennes they are anchylosed 

 by suture with the Sphenoid. Between them lies the vomer, which 

 is wanting in the Parrots and Gallinae, but which is most strongly 

 developed in the Palmipedes, and is generally represented by a 



