Mr. W. K. Parker on the Osteology o/Microglossa Alecto. 137 



pital. The occipital condyle ia an extremely neat hemisphere. The 

 scooped occipital plane forms a very obtuse angle with the basis 

 cranii, which latter region is very small, triangular, and protected by 

 sharp ridges that meet at the fore angle of the coalesced basitem- 

 porals, below the small, closely placed Eustachian openings. At first 

 the " rostrum " of the basisphenoid is sharply carinate, then it 

 becomes thick, rounded, and covered with articular cartilage, under 

 which the palatines and anterior ends of the pterygoids glide. The 

 height of the skull is so great that, although the hemispheres of the 

 brain lie down between the eyes more than in most birds, yet the 

 compressed rostrum of the basisphenoid and the lower edge of the 

 perpendicular ethmoid do, together, make a great keel, larger than 

 tiie sternal keel of the Love-bird {Ayapornis puUaria). The ante- 

 rior pterygoid processes are thrown out of relation to the pterygoids, 

 which grow no spur to answer to them ; they are dull forthstanding 

 prickles. The exoccipitals are not nearly so much scooped to make 

 a drum-cavity as in the smaller Parrots ; the tympanies, like the 

 columellse, are lost. The main piece is large in some of the smaller 

 kinds. In front of the great cranio- facial hinge, the nasals and 

 nasal processes of the intermaxillanes are converted into the merest 

 swollen sponge ; behind the hinge, on each side, the lachrymals are 

 also swollen ; but the frontals dip to form a valley between the or- 

 bits. Then there is a pair of frontal, and another pair of parietal, 

 smooth, large, ronnded swellings, with a shallow, equally smooth 

 valley between them. The width of the head is nearly two inches at 

 the point where the postorbital process of the frontal melts into the 

 postorbital spur of the alisphenoid (post-frontal proper). Below and 

 behind this point it is more than two inches wide. The junction of 

 the thick quadrate splint (squamosal) with the post-frontal spur is 

 so extensive as almost to cover in the small heart-shaped "temporal 

 fossa." This bridge of bone is half an inch across. The optic fora- 

 mina are about one- third of an inch apart ; the olfactory fissures are 

 at the same distance. There is an elegant, small, shell-like middle 

 turbinal on the front of the self-develo[)ed '^ j'.ars plana,"" or antor- 

 bital, and the simple crus of the ethmoid curls upon itself, so as to 

 form an upper turbinal. There are evidently full two coils to the in- 

 ferior turbinals, which are ossified in a fenestrate manner, as in mam- 

 mals, and which project far beneath the alee nasi. These latter are 

 ossified separately in the Parrots, and then, in many instances as in 

 this, acquire an adhesion with the nasals and the inferior turbinals. 

 The outstanding spurs of the antero-inferior septal bone increase the 

 complexity of the nasal labyrinth. 



The sternum has its fenestrse nearly filled up. The sternal keel 

 is, as in Parrots and many of their nearest allies, coincident with the 

 Uf)turned, somewhat bifurcate episternal process. This is perfectly 

 normal ; for the keel, the episternal process, and the coracoid grooves 

 really belong to the shoulder-girdle ; together they form the true 

 episternum or manubrium. This might be called "omo-sternum," 

 in contradistinction to the rib-sternum ("pleuro-sternum"), or that 

 which relates to the inner cartilaginous belts, which grow directly 



Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. xvi. 10 



