36 Leach, The Myology of the Bell-Magpie, [isf Tuiy 



The Palate. 



The palate, as in all members of the Passeriformes, is 

 segithognathous — that is, the vomer is truncated and the 

 maxillo-palatines do not fuse. The palate of Strepera, however, 

 is not the usual gegithognathous type, but is the " compound 

 gegithognathous " form of Professor W. K. Parker, who, in the 

 " Transactions of the Zoological Society," ix., 1877, p. 327, 

 described the palate of Gymnorhina as being very different from 

 that of the normal Corvus type. 



Gymnorhina and Cracticus show a fuller development of this 

 modification than Strepera does. In Gymnorhina the vomer is 

 forked, the nasal septum and the walls of the olfactory chamber 

 are ossified, and the palate is converted into a desmognathous 

 palate. It, however, is not the usual desmognathous palate 

 formed by the fusion of the maxillo-palatines with the septum. 

 Gymnorhina and Cracticus have the olfactory chamber so strongly 

 ossified that the foramen is almost filled, but in Strepera the 

 ossification has not proceeded so far. The vomer is much 

 modified. In Gymnorhina and Cracticus it is strongly forked in 

 front. In Strepera the forking is seen only on the upper surface. 

 The pterygoids are fused with the palatines in Gymnorhina, 

 Strepera, and Cracticus, not hinged as they are in Corvus. 

 Huxley made use of the characters of the palate in classification. 

 His famous paper marked a distinct advance in the classification 

 of birds (" Proceedings Zoological Society," 1867). 



The Carotid Artery. 



The carotid artery in Strepera is single ; it is the left carotid 

 found in the Passeres and many other birds, the right carotid 

 being absent. It runs forward partly in a special canal formed 

 on the ventral side of the middle cervical vertebrae, and divides 

 into two at the base of the skull, thus serving as two carotids. 



Sternum and Ribs. 



The sternum in Strepera has a large single notch in the posterior 

 border on each side. It has also a large Y-shaped external spine 

 on the anterior upper border. These two features are character- 

 istic of the Passerine sternum. 



Pycraft records an epipleural appendage on the posterior rib, 

 and says the ribs are very broad and strong. Possibly his 

 specimen was abnormal. The specimens examined by me of 

 Strepera, Gymnorhina, and Cracticus had the epipleural appendage 

 smaller and shorter on the next to last rib, and the last rib had 

 no appendage. The ribs were not noticeably broad or strong, 

 as Pycraft found in his specimens of Gymnorhina. 



The Position of Strepera in Classification. 



Dr. Stejneger says, in " The Riverside Natural History," 

 vol. iv. : The Birds, p. 458 : — " There seems to be no single 



