388 MR. w. A. FORBES ON THE [May 4, 



As regards this part of the structure of Philepitta, I only wish to 

 remark on and give a figure of the palate, extracted from a skin of 

 P. castanea by Prof. Garrod, M. Milne-Edwards's figure of this 

 (pi. 112. fig. 2«) being rather indistinct in some important points. 

 As will at once be seen, the vomer is truly Passerine, being split behind 

 and truncated in front ; to its outer and anterior angles are articulated 

 two small nodules of bone, probably corresponding to the " septo- 

 maxillaries " of Prof. Parker. The maxillo-palatines are slender, 

 long, recurved apically, and pointed backwards ; the transpalatines 

 are distinct and shghtly curved inwardly, and the palatines tend to 

 diverge behind. In Pitta {cyanura) the vomer is proportionally 

 broader, the maxillo-palatines are much shorter and broader and 

 more transversely directed, and the palatines are nearly parallel to 

 each other throughout '. In the Eurylcemida' the maxillo-palatines, 

 though slender, are nearly transverse to the axis of the skull, and 

 the " transpalatines " tend to become obsolete. 



Fig. 1. 



Palate ot Philepitta casfanca (nat. size). 



Judging from M. Milne-Edwards's figure (/. c. pi. 1 1 2. fig. 3), the 

 manubrium sterni is but slightly bifid, therein approaching that of the 

 Eurylcemidce. 



As regards other points, in its pterylosis Philepitta, which was 

 one of the few important forms unexamined, by Nitzsch, is perfectly 

 Passerine. There is a longish oval ephippial saddle, with a large 

 space, much as in some of the Eurylamidce {vide supra, p. 381) ; 

 in Pitta, according to Nitzsch, the saddle is undivided. But 

 Philepitta differs from the Eurylamidcc, and agrees with all other 

 Passeres, in the absence of any vinculum in the deep plantar ten- 

 dons, as was ascertained by Prof. Garrod from the examination of a 

 skin, and recorded by him in MS. 



' Cf. Prof. Parker's fig. of Pitta mclanoce2}hala. Trans. Zool. Soo. is. pi. Ivi. 

 figs. 6, 7. In this species the " transpalatiue " processes, are far less developed 

 than ill P. cyanum. 



- Figures of the palates of Euri/tatnus ockromelas and Calyptomena xdridis 

 are given in Prof. Garrod's paper, P. Z. S. 1877, p. 449. 



