4038 The Zoologist — June, 1874. 



|t0ttcMii[O[S at BtmMt Sotictits. 



LiNNEAN Society of London. 

 April 2, 1874. — J. Gwyn Jeffreys, Esq., F.R.S., in the chair. 

 The foUowiug paper was read : — " Oa the IMorphology of the Skulls in 

 the Woodpeckers [Picida) and the Wrynecks [Yungida;)" By Mr. W. 

 Kitchen Parker. (Communicated hy the President.) The present paper is 

 one of a series in hand, in which the writer has endeavoured to work out 

 thoroughly the facial characters of certain types of birds, in harmony with 

 the view given by Professor Huxley in his well-known paper ' On the 

 Classification of Birds' (Proc. Zool. Soc, April 11, 1807). His own mode 

 of research is much more like that followed by the distinguished author of 

 that paper than that pursued hy ornithologists proper. Without under- 

 valuing their e.vcelleut labours, yet there are many things which are seen 

 first and first understood by the embryologist, and not by the zoologist as 

 such. Professor Huxley, in the paper just referred to, separated the forms 

 now under consideration into his group ' Coleomorphaj,' and gives (p. 4G7) 

 a very valuable summary of their characters. It was sought in that paper 

 to bring into more or less zoological contiguity such birds as have a similar 

 structure of the facial and, especially, of the palatal bones. The group- 

 terras ' Schizognathae' (p. 4QC), ' Dromffioguatbne ' (p. 425), &c., are very 

 important, although some of them are of very wide application. It was the 

 first thought of the author of this paper that the woodpeckers would easily 

 find a place amongst the non-passerine aerial birds ; but examination of 

 their palatal structures soon dispelled this opinion. They are more allied 

 to the ' Passeriua3 ' than most of the Zygodactyles ; but it is in the embryos 

 of that type, and not to the adult, that they are related. The ' Passerinse ' 

 themselves are well termed ' iEgitboguathous ' (p. 450). This huge group 

 is in hand at present. Large materials have been added to the stores of the 

 writer by Mr. Osbert Salvin, who also has assisted gi'eatly in the matter of 

 the Picidaj. He is also indebted to Dr. Murie, Mr. D. Bartlctt and Mr. 

 W. J. Williams. Most of the non-passerine birds that seem to come 

 nearest to the woodpeckers have a very solid palate ; they are ' Desmogna- 

 thous;' others, as the hummiug-birds and goatsuckers (Ca^^rj»n<Z^!<s), are 

 ' Schizognathous;' whilst the swift [Cypselus) is as perfectly '.^Egitho- 

 gnathous' as the swallows. But the woodpeckers retain their non-coalesced 

 condition of the palatal structures which we see in the lizards, very unlike 

 that great fusion of parts towards the mid-line which occurs in most of the 

 higher birds. They have also an unusually arrested condition of the palatal 

 part of the upper jaw-bone (maxillary), which is characteristic of the lizard, 

 and unlike the bird-class generally — and bones superadded to the palate 

 ('vomers,' ' septomaxillaries,' &c.); these are persistently in paired groups, 



