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X. On the Osteology and Fterylosis of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper (Eurynorhynchus 

 pygmseus, Linn.). By John Andejison, M.D., F.R.S.R, F.L.S., F.Z.S., SfC, Curator 

 of Indian Museum, and Prof. Comp. Anatomy at Medical College, Calcutta*. 



(Plate XXXV.) 



Eead June 15, 1876. 



A S Mr. Harting has already fully stated f all that has been ascertained regarding the 

 bibliography and life-history of this remarkable little bird, the following observations 

 will be confined to a description of the particulars indicated in the title of this paper. 

 These are founded on a specimen procured many years ago at Chittagong in Eastern 

 Bengal, on the mud flats at the mouth of the Karnafulie river %. 



The Skull. — The distinguishing feature of the skull, as is well known, is the expansion 

 of the distal end of the beak into a quadrangular-shaped spoon, which nearly equals in 

 breadth the greatest transverse diameter of the cranium. In the specimen on which these 

 remarks are based all the sutures of the skidl have disappeared, the palatines having also 

 united at their postero-internal angles. The orbit is very large, as in Tringa, its 

 longitudinal diameter equalling the interval between its posterior margin and the oc- 

 ciput. The skull has the globular and smooth character of the pluvialine group of birds. 

 There is a feeble lambdoiclal ridge, large occipital imperfections of ossification, and a 

 triangular foramen magnum, with the apex of the orifice directed backwards and slightly 

 upwards, as in Tringa minuta. The occipital and basicranial regions are somewhat 

 tumid, which is also a character of the Tringa skull ; and the palatine and interorbital 

 regions also conform to it in their general characters. The latter region, however, is 

 nearly flat, and is more depressed than in any species of Tringa I have examined ; and 

 the groove of the frontal suture is not prolonged on to it, although the interlacrymal 

 depression is the same as in Tringa. 



The occipital area of the skull is directed upwards and backwards, and, as defined by 

 the lambdoidal ridge, is of very limited extent compared with the parieto-frontal capacity 

 of the cranimn. The two supraoccipital imperfections of ossification form its most 

 posteriorly prominent part, as is the case with the generality of skulls which have these 

 fontanelles — so much so, that they are continuous from side to side when the skull is 

 viewed in profile. They are symmetrical, and are narrower above than below ; and 

 from their lower margins a groove is continued forwards along the sides of the foramen 

 magnum, defined externally by the tumidity of the exoccipitals. Inside the skull this 



* I am indebted to the Trustees of the Indian Museum for their permission to illustrate this paper from the 

 materials in their possession. 



t ' The Ibis,' 1869, new ser. vol. v. p. 427. 



% This is one of the " three specimens in spirits " mentioned by Mr. Harting in the paper referred to (p. 433) as 

 having been sent by Mr. J. E. Bruce from Chittagong in 1856. 



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