310 



PROF. HUXLEY ON THE ALECTOROMORPHj^. [May 14, 



those of the Pigeons in their general form, and particularly in the 

 development of the iimer lamina. The maxillo-palatines, on the 

 other hand, are as ill-developed as in many Alectoropodes ; and there 

 is not the slightest approximation to the desmognathous arrangement 

 of Corijthaix. The vomer, as already described, is slender and 

 compressed from side to side, though it tends to expand in front. 

 It resembles the vomer in the Peristeropodes, which is as distinctly 

 ossified, slender, and compressed from side to side, but tapers to a 

 point in front. 



Fig. 13. 



Fig. 14. 



Fig. 1.5. 



/.a 



Fig. 13. The skull of Opistlwcoiaus, viewed from above. 



14. The mandible, viewed from above. 



15. Side view of the .skull of Opisthocomus. 



There are no basipterygoid processes — a circumstance in which 

 Opisthocomus differs from all the Alectoromorpha and most of the 

 Pigeons*. In the antero-posterior convexity of the basitemporals 



* In Goiira they are sometimes almost obsolete ; and they are absent in Dkhis 

 and rczaphajiii. 



