No. 3.] MUSCLES AND NERVES IN AMIA CALVA. 691 
the dermal and subdermal tissues in the temporal region of the 
top of the head. The remaining and larger portion of the 
nerve turns outward, sends, in all the specimens examined, 
an important branch forward to unite with the other anterior 
portion of the nerve, and then, turning downward, breaks up into 
numerous branches which run downward, forward, and backward 
in the pigment layer along the inner surface of the operculum, 
lying immediately external to the terminal ramifications of the 
ramus opercularis facialis on the outer surface of the levator 
and adductor operculi. The anterior branches of this part of 
the nerve run forward into the thick dermal tissue behind the 
dorsal end of the preoperculum, and even slightly under the 
free dorsal end of that bone. The entire nerve may, from its 
distribution, be called the dorsal, or supratemporal branch of 
the vagus. Its small intracranial branch (*, Figs. 25 and 59) 
arises more from the main vagus root than from the dorsal 
branch itself. It, however, arises from the fibres that go to 
form that branch, and hence can be considered as a branch of 
it. It runs upward and forward, internal to the root of the 
lateral nerve, and issues on the top of the chondrocranium by 
a small foramen (/¢fr, Fig. 8, Pl. X XI) lying near the middle 
line of the head, near its hind end. Its further course could 
not be traced. From its position, at its exit, it would seem to 
be the ramus lateralis trigemini, or ramus recurrens facialis, of 
teleosts. Its apparent origin is, however, from the vagus, and 
not from the trigeminus or facialis. If it be the ramus lateralis 
trigemini the first pair of dorsal branches of the ophthalmicus 
superficialis trigemini can not be that nerve, or can only be a 
part of it. Both nerves, and the main supratemporal nerve as 
well, are distributed to regions where terminal buds are found, 
this being especially true of the posterior branch of the main 
nerve. 
The supratemporal branch of the vagus arises almost entirely 
from the anterior bundle of the root of the nerve. The fibres 
of that bundle, where they traverse the intracranial ganglion, 
have, apparently, an important interchange of fibres with the 
posterior bundle of the root. Viewed superficially and from 
below, they have, however, the appearance of a separate and 
