12 MR. W. K. PARKER ON THE MORPHOLOGY OF 



front of this (s.mx*) ; this reaches to, and is bound under, the trabecular cornu (c. tr) 

 The retral growths of the alinasal folds have also two short irregularly oval patches of 

 fibrous bone, the 3rd and 2nd " septo-maxillaries " (s.mx s , s.mx 2 ) ; and these have 

 running in front of them the first of the septo-maxillary series (s.mx 1 ) ; it is a frail, 

 slightly inbent style, running as far forward as the prsenasal (fig. 3, pn) . The ossicles 

 at the mid line have a character which was not suspected in the examination of the 

 adult ; and they were not discernible in the fledglings ; the section of these (Plate I. 

 figs. 7 & 8) showed no submesial cartilage inside the inturned alinasal lamina {i. al, n.w). 

 Here, however late and abortively developed, we have the " labial cartilages " ossified, 

 though independently of the other vomerine bones (vomers and " septo-maxillaries "), 

 and very unsymmetrical in shape. The left bone (I. c 2 ) is hindermost ; it is tuberculate 

 behind, broad and grooved below in the middle, and styloid in front ; this styloid part is 

 strongly bound beneath the right piece (I. c l ). This latter is a sessile leaf of bone, on a 

 long fore-and-aft style, the foremost style being tied beneath the true septal bone or 

 trabecular ossicle (s. n), In the embryo of the Linnet (to be described in another paper) 

 are to be seen the labial cartilages of the Passerine bird, which so soon coalesce, and then 

 send backward exogenous "crura; " here, in the Woodpecker, they are abortively developed, 

 come nearer and nearer to the mid line (see in the old bird, Plate II. figs. 1, 2, 3, s. n, s.mx), 

 and appear like mere patches of fibrous bone. Almost all the elements of the complex 

 highly metamorphosed Passerine vomer keep apart in the Woodpecker, but not all ; the 

 5th septo-maxillary coalesces with the ossified inturned lamina (Plate II. figs. 2 & 5, 

 s.mx, i. al) ; and that part of the nasal capsule, contrary to all experience, detaches 

 itself from the rest, and becomes the scooped part of the complex 5th septo-maxillary of 

 the old bird. In the Passerines this part of the nasal capsule coalesces with, and often 

 becomes largely ossified by, the contiguous vomerine bones. In the old bird (Plate II. 

 figs. 1-5) the 1st, 2nd, & 3rd septo-maxillaries coalesce with the contiguous parts of 

 the prsemaxillary and infero-mesial parts of the nasal capsule. In the subadult bird 

 (Plate II.) the huge, simple "alinasal turbinals" (al. tb) are ossifying below; the "in- 

 ferior turbinal " (i. tb) is almost entirely soft. The inferior part of the labyrinth, in 

 front, has the very constant endosteal patch of bone ; it has already ossified the long 

 "prsenasal" style (which afterwards becomes blunt, Plate II. fig. 1, p.n); laterally 

 (fig. 7) it is affecting the " trabecular cornua" (o. tr) ; and behind it runs along the fore 

 half of the septum below ; the rest of the septum below, or rather its trabecular addition, 

 has the usual infero-posterior osseous centre (tr, s. n), which is attached to the right ossified 

 labial cartilage. Binding the " inturned lamina," below is the sessile, leafy " maxillo-pala- 

 tine" plate; and undergirding this is the contiguous part of the palatine (pa), whose 

 interpalatine process (ipa), far forwards in position, ties itself to the outer and under 

 surface of the 4th and 5th septo-maxillaries. The rest of the parts of this most re- 

 markably complex facial basketwork have been described already ; and the reader will 

 now be able to follow me whilst I give the details of other species of Woodpeckers. 



The first of these exhibits the " vomerine cartilages," but unossified, and is only to be 

 understood by references to the condition of these parts in various Passerine birds. These 

 references will be given in due time and place. 



