136 MR. W. K. PARKER ON THE STRUCTURE 



Behind we see that the large mesopterygoids (mpg) appear at the mid line, between 

 the postpalatine processes (ptpa). Their general shape, as sharp wedges, is seen in the 

 side view (fig. 8). The pterygoids (pg) differ but little from those of the Cariama, being 

 short, flattened out on the inside in front ; whilst behind they send up a very rudi- 

 mentary epipterygoid plate (epg) . The extent of the median part of the maxillaries, the 

 maxillo-palatine plates (mxp), is very large, equal indeed, fore and aft, to what is seen in 

 an ordinary mammal. They are spongy, have a somewhat lunate or, rather, ear-shaped 

 form, and their hinder part forms a large free lobe, curving outwards. 



In addition to the jugal process of the maxillary, there are two slender styles on each 

 side, a jugal (j) and a quadrato-jugal (qj), and not merely one bone, as in the Falcon. 



On the Structure of the Face in Buzzards, Kites, and Harriers. 



Several subfamilies of the lesser rapacious birds range themselves under the Accipitrine 

 type as a distinct form, and inferior to the Falconine. Their cranio-facial structures 

 agree very closely with what is seen in the Eagles and the Aquiline Vultures. 



The condition of the facial parts in a recently fledged Common Buzzard (Buteo vul- 

 garis) is very instructive, and is representative of what may be found in a large number 

 of Old-World Bapaces, excluding, of course, the culminating forms, the Falcons. 



A large interorbital fenestra (Plate XXIV. fig. 9, iof) separates the ethmo-presphe- 

 noidal bar above from the ethmo-basisphenoidal bar below (pe, bs), and the flat roof of 

 the great ethmoid, covered by the frontals and nasals (f, n), is rapidly becoming bony 

 from the huge median centre (pe). This roof sends backwards the normally ornithic 

 spike over the olfactory nerve (1), which grooves the bony plate on each side. The 

 coiled aliethmoid (ale), the representative of the upper turbinal mass of the mammal, 

 is thus partly ossified. 



The flat antorbital plate, or pars plana (pp), which represents the middle turbinal, 

 is already ossified, and has coalesced with the perpendicular plate or meso-ethmoid (pe) ; 

 it is roughly pentagonal in form. 



But this orbito-nasal partition is a downward continuation of the ala growing from 

 the roof, the aliethmoid [(ale) ; the two are connected by a narrowish band of carti- 

 lage : this band is separately ossified, forming an " upper ectethmoid " bone, as in the 

 Passerinse (Corvtis). It lies under the roof, however, and does not stand out as a 

 prefrontal mass, as in the Crow and its congeners. 



The nasal nerve runs into the nose from the orbit, inside this bar, skirting the upper 

 turbinal, and then sends most of its substance forwards and downwards (see dotted 

 line in the figure) to the base of the septum nasi. 



The notch which divides the true olfactory region from the septum nasi (sn) is very 

 large, runs obliquely forwards and upwards, and ends a little distance from the top ; 

 hence this cranio-facial cleft is imperfect. The septum itself, only partially ossified as 

 yet, is differentiated into a nasal or trabecular, and an upper or true alinasal region, 

 by a large, oval, internasal fenestra (inf). Below and in front of this space the septum 

 is ossified as one large bone (Iso), whilst the upper part is soft, except at the roof, 

 behind; there is at that part an upper septo-nasal bone (uso). The large lower bone 



