132 MR. W. K. PARKER ON THE STRUCTURE 



of the Fowl and the common Vulture. In the Crane, a truly pluvialine bird, the maxillo- 

 palatines project but little mesiad of the prepalatine bar, the huge almost struthious 

 double vomer being wholly displayed in the upturned palate. 



Structurally, then, the Cariama is seen to have the remotest relation to the Pluvialine 

 type ; and if the details just given be weighed and measured, they will show that its 

 Raptorial characters vastly preponderate ; that it is evidently a branch of the same stock 

 as the true Gallinaceae, especially the Megapods and Curassows, and that it does not 

 belong to any extant type of Raptorial bird ; but as the Palamedea is a Chenomorph, so 

 is the Cariama an Aetomorph, not holding out the flag of any one party of that common- 

 wealth, but being, as it were, a representative of the old fathers of the race, whose sons 

 bave acquired such sharp characters of dissimilarity. It contains in itself not merely 

 the attributes of a single subfamily, as Hawk, Falcon, Owl, Vulture, but " all these in 

 their pregnant causes mixed." 



There is a bone on each side in the face of the Cariama which is not seen well in the 

 palatine view ; this is the os uncinatum (Plate XXIV. fig. 2a, ou) ; it is well seen 

 in the side view. 



As I have shown in the former part of this paper, this is common in the Cuculines ; in 

 Dicholophus it is similar to but larger than its counterpart in the Gulls (Plate XXVII. 

 fig. 11, ou). It has a like development in the Alabatross, and is abortively seen in Uria 

 troile and Alca torda. I find it in no other Raptorial bird, nor in any of the Grallae that 

 lie on the same morphological level as the Cariama, and although not belonging to its 

 group have yet some affinity with it. 



Here the bone is a notable style perched upon the zygoma, and underpropping the 

 lacrymal (I); it is, however, connected with the feebly developed pars plana (pp), the 

 free tongue-shaped part of which is unossified as in the pluvialine types. 



This is the ornithic representative of the cartilaginous bar which yokes the trabecula 

 to the palatine in the Prog, and therefore of great interest morphologically. 



On the Structure of the Skull and Face in the Falcon (Falco tinnunculus). 



Having treasured up from time to time every obtainable stage of young birds, I am 

 able to compare the adult Cariama's skull with the immature skull (that of fledglings) 

 of the Falcon, the Hawk, and the Owl, the proper morphological counterparts of the 

 skull of such a root-form as the one just described *. 



I trust to the trained eye of the ornithologist to see at once the essential agreement of 

 this Falconine palate (fig. 4) with that of the Cariama (fig. 3). Nature, anti- Procrustean 

 in all her works, has developed one skull into a form which is feline in its shortness, 

 massiveness, and strength, whilst the other is oiitdrawn, and, as it were, of a vulpine 

 shape ; yet the " habit " of both types is manifestly one. The difference depicted is not 

 the full measure of what would have been seen if an adult Kestrel had been selected for 

 comparison. 



* The same method with regard to the relation of the Plovers to the Gulls has appeared to be fruitful to my 

 accomplished fellow workers, Professors Huxley and Newton ; and their coinciding judgment has been to me in no 

 little degree determinative of renewed labour in this field. 



