THE QUADRATE BONE IN BIRDS. 7 
points of resemblance to the Pelican’s, at least in respect of the quadrato-jugal cup ; 
while an inspection of the mandibular articulation in the Pelican may possibly 
explain the origin of its peculiarity in the Cormorant. The quadrate bone does not 
help to support the view that the Dysporomorphee or Steganopodes are a very 
natural group (BRANDT), nor that in it the Pelicans form one natural division, the 
remainire genera another (HuxLEy). For the Pelican differs from the Solan 
Goose in its imperfect quadrato-jugal cup and its less perfect pterygoid condyle, 
and in the want of the accessory trochlea on the anterior part of the mandibular 
articulation ; and from both the Solan Goose and the Cormorant in the large size of 
its anterior process, and in lacking all trace of the accessory capitulum. 
The affinity between the Pelargomorph quadrate and that of the Solan 
Goose and Pelican is more easy to see. The mandibular articular surfaces in the 
quadrate of the Heron and Gannet are almost identical, the quadrato-jugal cup is 
similar in both, and indeed they differ in little except the size of the anterior 
process. 
But these quadrates point in other directions besides that of the Pelargo- 
morphee. 
Hux try remarks, in dealing with the Cecomorphe (loc. cit., p. 458), that 
“the Procellariidee are aberrant forms tending towards the Cormorants and Pelicans, 
among the Desmognathz”; and we find accordingly that the quadrate also shows 
this affinity between the Cecomorphe and the Dysporomorphe. Thus the Gannet 
resembles the Petrel and Grebe in its accessory trochlea external to the anterior 
mandibular condyle, and somewhat also in the character of its pterygoid process : 
its two capitula are more deeply cleft asunder even than those of Larus or Alca ; 
and it resembles the two latter genera in a posterior extension of the posterior 
mandibular condyles, which is only partially shown in the figures of the side view. 
But it differs from all Cecomorpheze in its small poimted anterior process. We have 
already called attention to the resemblance between the head of the bone in the 
Cormorant and the Penguin. 
V.—A£TOMORPHA. 
We have studied the quadrate in the Vulture (Neophron), Owl, and Buzzard. 
We have not been able to examine Gypogeranus, or the New World Vultures. 
The quadrate of the Vulture has already been described. We may recall 
attention to its widely but not deeply separate capitula, its small accessory head, its 
narrow pointed and rather large anterior process, its distinct pterygoid process, its 
deep oval quadrato-jugal cup, and its simple and typical mandibular articular 
surface. 
* Beitr. z. Kennt. d. Naturgesch d. Vogel. St. Petersburg, 1839. 
