AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE BIRD'S SKULL. 129 



The first and most notable difference between tbe skull of tbe Cariama and that of 

 Gyps fulvus is that it is generally feebler (Plate XXIV. figs. 1 & 2 : fig. 1, Gyps; fig. 2, 

 Dicholopliiis), and its ossification is arrested ; but it has the elongated vulturine face ; 

 whilst Gypogeranus comes close to the Harriers, Kites, and Buzzards. 



The first and leading characteristic of the skull in this type is its palate, which cor- 

 responds to that of a young Falcon (Plate XXIV. figs. 3 & 4), and gives me that modi- 

 fication of the Desinognathous skull which I have termed (supra, p. 112) " imperfectly 

 direct," the maxillo-palatine plates (niccp) being united by harmony-suture and not by 

 coalescence. 



How this skull has been taken for one of the " Schizognathous " type, and put with 

 that of Cranes and Bustards, I cannot understand. In respect of its feebly ossified nasal 

 labyrinth, this form approaches and agrees with other South-American types, namely 

 the " Cathartidse ;" and the skull of Sarcoramphus has greatly assisted me in working 

 this kind out; but there is no kind of Raptorial skull that it is not, more or less, in 

 harmony with, in one point or another ; and the whole group of the Aetoniorphse may 

 in some long past epoch have lain in the loins of a bird but little different from the 

 Cariama. 



There are three main varieties in the general bony characters of the Raptores : in the 

 Cariama the skeleton has a fibrous lightness and delicacy, in the Owls a soft spongy 

 condition for the most part, the long bones being dense as to their walls ; but these are 

 of extreme tenuity. In the Palcons the bones, everywhere, are almost like ivory in their 

 density, reminding one of those of Serpents. 



The skeleton of the Cariama has very little in common with that of the Crane tribe ; 

 it is as delicate, relatively, as that of that lonely waif of a subfamily of the " Gruinae," 

 the Sun-Bittern (Eurypyga helias), and still more like that of another subextinct type 

 of ancient and generalized Cranes, namely the Kagu (Rhinochetus). But the Crane 

 with which one would naturally compare it is the Trumpeter (JPsophia) ; nothing, how- 

 ever, can be more fatal to the view of its being a Gruine bird than such a comparison : 

 I would rather make room for it amongst the Gallinaceous birds than see it so mis- 

 placed. In the genealogical life-tree of the families of Birds, some grow near to each 

 other, and have, as it were, their branches forming an acute angle with their leader, as 

 in the Lombardy poplar ; whilst others, as in the black poplar, grow out at all angles, 

 most of which are wide and divergent. 



If we take the " Coracomorphse," they do so cling to each other, diverging very 

 gently ; but the " Aetoruorphse " delight in wide and wild divergence ; and although 

 manifestly " of one blood," they yet have acquired the greatest variety in their speciali- 

 zations; but the Palcon is "brother to the Owl." 



Notwithstanding the enfeebled length of the beak of the Cariama, the bones are 

 thoroughly fused together. The broad basitemporals (fig. S t bt) end in front, as in the 



selves by rolling exactly like the Common Fowl : this is in harmony with the fact that they impinge very closely 

 on the gallinaceous circle. They are Kaptores with a very gallinaceous aspect ; whilst the vulterine Guinea-hen and 

 the Brush-Turkey are Fowls with a very vulturine aspect. 



