134 



Zoological Society : — 



The upper jaw has sixteen small teeth, and the lower jaw seventeen, 

 on each side, there being no vestige of an alveolar ridge behind them 

 in either jaw. The first teeth are smaller and conical, the hinder 

 broader and truncated, as seen in figures 3 & 4. This is another cha- 

 racter distinguishing it from the European species ; the skull of a 

 young individual of the latter, which I examined, had twenty-four 

 teeth in the upper jaw, and twenty-five in the lower, in both extending 

 more towards the hinder part of the jaw than in the new species. 



The specimen of P. spinipinnis which is preserved in the public 

 Museum of Buenos Ayres, was captured in the mouth of the River 



Fig. 5. 



Skull of Phoccma spinipinnis, seen from above, reduced one-third. 



Plata, and was afterwards exhibited in Buenos Ayres to the public, 

 some years before 1 came to this country. 



Length of the whole skull, 29 centim. 



Breadth between the orbits, 1 7 centim. 



Length of the external margin of the upper jaw, 12 centim. ; of 

 the lower jaw, 22 centim. 



Note. — The tympanic bone is lost 

 in this part. 



the figure is therefore defective 



On the Osteology of Microglossa Alecto. 

 By W. K. Parker, F.Z.S. 



Having been busy of late with the study of the skull and its 

 development in the Ostrich tribe, I am the more sensitive to the 

 peculiar ornithic excellences of the Parrot family. Indeed, but for 

 their livery, it could hardly have been supposed that these opposite 



