1877.] 



ANATOMY OF PASSERINE BIRDS. 



449 



opportunity of examining. And the length of the first primary 

 among the remiges tells the same tale. 



The order Passeres falls, therefore, into two sections to start with : — 

 those with the hallux not free, the Eurylaimidae ; and those with the 

 hallux independently movable. This latter suborder may be again 

 divided up in the manner suggested in Part I. of this communi- 

 cation K I much regret that, not having been able, as yet, to obtain 

 any of the Eurylaimidse in spirit, I have not had an opportunity of 

 making out the arrangement of the tensor patagii brevis muscle 

 at its insertion. From skins, however, I have been able to pro- 

 cure the skulls, with the palates uninjured, of Eurtjlcemus ochrome- 

 las, Cymhirhynchus macrorhynchus, and Calyptomena viridis. The 

 first and last of these are figured here (figs. 1 & 2), Cymhirhyn- 

 chus agreeing very closely with Eurylceinus. The truly Passerine 



Fiff. ]. 



Fif 2 



Fig. 1. Palatal yiew of skull of Eurylamus ochromelas. 

 Pig. 2. Palatal view of skull of Calyptomena viridis. 



nature of the vomer at its anterior end, with the alinasal cartilages 

 ossified in connexion with them, is undoubted ; at the same time 

 the more than usually transverse and lengthy maxillo-palatines witli 

 their unexpanded knobbed ends are worthy of notice. Calyptomena 

 is seen to resemble the other genera in this latter point, though the 

 vomer is much narrower throughout. The feeble development of 

 the postero-external or "transpalatine" portions of the palatine bones, 

 as termed by Mr. Parker, is to be seen in both the genera. 



Turning to a different subject, I desire to direct attention to a 

 peculiarity in the skulls of some of the Dendrocolaptidse among the 

 Tracheophone Passeres, which has, in my opinion, some significance 

 in the arrangement of the genera of that family. 



From an examination of Furnarius rufus, Leptasthenura ceyitha- 

 loides, Synallaxis frontalis, Sclerurus caudacutus, and Phlceocryptes 

 melanops, I find that these birds present features in the conformation 

 of their nasal bones not present in Conopophaga aurita, Dendro- 



' P.Z.S. 187(i. p. 518. 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1877, No. XXIX. 29 



