270 MR. W. K. PARKER ON THE OSTEOLOGY OF BALiENICEPS REX. 



of that great man are classical and almost sacred : his genera and species are also 

 exceedingly useful as starting-points. This bird, whose ' visage darts forth melancholy,' 

 and whose head and jaws are not unlike (as the Arabs say) an upturned Arabian shoe, 

 has necessarily many interesting points in its osteology. The purpose of this paper is to 

 point out these peculiarities ; and we shall take this opportunity of noting the analogies 

 and homologies that occur to us in the osseous structure of the Vertebrata generally, 

 and of Birds in particular. No anatomist can look at the skull of the Balseniceps with- 

 out desiring very strongly to know the history of all that melting and coalescence of 

 cranial ' elements' which he sees before him. 



The rich literature for which we are indebted to the extraordinary labours of such 

 men as Cuvier and Owen, who have principally used the gradational method, will not, 

 however, satisfy the mind of him who would see Nature at her work, and behold the 

 quiet formation of each part and member — ' when as yet there are none of them.' 



We are not without light on this subject : Baer, Vogt, Remak, Reichert, and other 

 excellent Embryologists abroad, and Professors Goodsir and Huxley nearer home, have 

 made us their deep and lasting debtors ; and we are not without hope that more of our 

 own countrymen will labour in this high field, incited thereto by such teachers of 

 so pleasant and noble a science. 



In describing the skeleton, and especially the skull of the Balaeniceps, we shall use 

 freely the published observations of the writers above-mentioned, depending, however, 

 principally upon our own labours (as it regards the class of Birds especially), which have 

 extended over some twenty years. And it seems to be a more natural and proper thing 

 that each man should cautiously and honestly put down his own views, than that he 

 should be content to become a stereotyped copy of any great master, multiplying his 

 errors a thousand-fold, whilst he makes no addition to his truths. 



It will be more convenient to begin the description of the skull of the Balseniceps at 

 its more perfect part, the occipital region, than to take the ethmo-vomerine sclerotome as 

 the starting-point ; and a regional description will perhaps be better than one based on 

 any theory of its essential segments. Those segments or sclerotomes must, however, be 

 discussed ; audit will be well to say at once that our own views on this subject approxi- 

 mate much more nearly to those of Professor Huxley than to the doctrine of the archetype 

 of the vertebrate skeleton as taught by Professor Owen, — or to the views of Professor 

 Goodsir, which are not less transcendental than those of his illustrious contemporarv. 

 Our references to the works of Professor Owen will be as follows : — 



1. The article Aves in Todd's ' Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology,' 1835, 



2. Lectures on Comparative Anatomy, vol. ii. 1846. 



3. Report on the Archetype and Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton, read at the 

 Meeting of the British Association held at Southampton, 1846. 



4. " On the Nature of Limbs : " a lecture delivered at the Royal Institution, 

 Feb. 19, 1849. 



