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



the prsemaxillary (figs. 1, 2, 3, p.px) comes, besides, under the fore part of the septum with 

 its recurrent wings; it has anchylosed with the inner edge of the long lathy prse- 

 palatine bars (p. pa). There is also a slender " median palatine process" to the prse- 

 maxillaries (m.p. px) ; in the specimens before me it is distinct from the nasal septum ; 

 but in another of my preparations, now in the College of Surgeons, the two parts are 

 anchylosed. The dentary region of the prsemaxillary overlaps, and is completely fused 

 with the maxillary ; the nasal processes (fig. 5, n.px) are well anchylosed to their nasal 

 and frontal surroundings, with a small part of their own median suture evident. 



It is in the intermediate splints, however, rather than in the parasphenoid and prse- 

 maxillaries, that the peculiarity of the Woodpecker's palate is most remarkable ; these 

 are the " vomers " and " septo-maxillaries." 



It is evident that Professor Huxley had not appreciated the true nature of the latter 

 bones in the Reptilian skull in his ' Elements ; ' for both in the Lizard and the Snake 

 (fig. 90, p. 225) they are described as ossifications in the internasal cartilage. Such 

 ossification I have never seen ; and the bones figured are what I at first called in the 

 Reptile " prsevomers," and now call " septo-maxillaries " *. 



Seen from below (Plate II. figs. 1 & 2, v.s.mx), the vomerine bones are attached loosely, 

 behind, to the premorse " ethmo-palatine " (e.pa), but more strongly to the inner 

 edge of the " maxillo-palatine " plate (mx.p) and of the alinasal and inferior turbinals 

 (al.tb, i. tb). Their position is -vertical, their convex face within towards the septum 

 nasi, and their concave face towards the turbinal scrolls. 



The inner view (fig. 3) shows them edgewise ; but they are also shown as dissected 

 away, with the inner edge of the " maxillo-palatine " in figs. 4 & 5 : here the piece of 

 the maxillary is thrown back to display the other pieces. The palatine bones and 

 maxillo-palatine plates He directly beneath the vomerine series ; in figs. 2 & 6 the palatine 

 is cut away to display them better. The main septo-maxillary (s.mx) is a conchoidal 

 bone, equal in size to the broadest, inturned part of the maxillary just adjacent. It has 

 a strong keel on its septal or convex surface ; and its hinder margin is broadly transverse, 

 ragged at its angles, and has its edge thickened on the inner surface, like the edge of a 

 bivalve shell. The lower edge of the bone is attached to the maxillo-palatine ; and its 

 narrowed anterior dentate margin carries a ragged wedge of bone, the " anterior septo- 

 maxillary " {s.mx'). Between the dorsal keel and the uncinate posterior angle there is a 

 rough wedge of bone one fourth its size : this is the main " vomer " (»') ; it is sharp in 

 front and notched behind. In the ligament which attaches the main vomerine piece to 

 stunted " ethmo-palatine" edge (e.pa), there is another, much smaller, irregularly oblong 

 bony centre. This is the posterior vomer (»"). The large conchoidal " septo-maxillary " 

 is a compound bone, as I shall soon show. These four pairs of bones do not, however, 

 exhaust the vomerine series; for the tract of ligamentous tissue hedging in the great 

 " notch " below, from the mesoethmoid to the septum nasi, has in it two " median septo- 



* My first term is perfectly correct if the facial arches are looked upon as a series of rib-like hoops growing down- 

 ward from the head. These bones appear to have been confused with the Mammalian " cornets infe'rieurs " by most 

 authors. Professor Owen (' Report on Archetype,' 1846, p. 293) speaks of them in Reptiles as " The small and in- 

 constant ossifications in the capsule of the organ of smell." 



