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



la most birds the highest part of the upper jaw is between the nasal fossse, but ia 

 Balseniceps it rises just behind them into a sort of rough boss, the bone then becoming 

 smoother for a quarter of an inch as it gently descends to the middle of the great 

 transverse hinge. This character, with the backward extension of the jaw, the shortness 

 of the principal frontals, and the very forward position of the enormous, well-margined 

 orbits, helps to give a solemn, wise, but somewhat sinister aspect to the bird. Looking 

 at the bird in his paddock, the first impression is that we have before us some strangely 

 ancient form with " the breath of life " in it, and " standing upon its feet," concerning 

 which Geology had taught us that "its bones were dried up, and its hope lost." 



Passing from the rough boss forwards, we find the bone again becoming smoother, 

 but it continues gently convex along the whole ridge until it expands in the large, ter- 

 minal, hooked beak. On each side of this convex ridge the bone is scooped by vessels, 

 is concave, and then suddenly rises into a sharp ridge, which overhangs a deep groove, 

 forked at its commencement, as it rises above and below the nasal fossa, and becomes 

 deep and narrow towards the middle, and wider and shallower as it turns off on either 

 side to give boundary to the great terminal hook. 



These sharp boundaries to the great sub-mesial grooves are at first seven-eighths of 

 an inch apart, at the anterior third they are scarcely more than a quarter of an inch 

 apart, and are three-quarters of an inch asunder at their termination on the lower 

 margin. 



In the dry skull of birds there is generally near the zygoma a large triangular space, 

 its base being the anterior third of the zygoma, its front side the descending plate of the 

 nasal, and the hinder side generally imperfectly bounded by the lacrymal. In the 

 Balseniceps no such space exists, or only in rudiment, there being, on the anterior 

 margin of the lacrymal, at its upper third, a groove terminating in a small oval passage 

 passing inwards, which passage is then followed by a series of small vascular punctse, 

 indicating the place where the lacrymal, nasal, and angle of pre-maxillary have so com- 

 pletely coalesced. The outer broad surface of the prai-maxilla is not nearly so smooth 

 as the crown of the head ; its substance is lighter, more marked by vessels, and its 

 weight diminished by open areolar spaces, — an approach to the structure of the Pelican's 

 upper jaw. The terminal beak is stronger than, but not so long and sharp as that of the 

 Albatros ; it is thrice the size and strength of that of the Pelican ; and the curved tip of 

 the Boat-bill's jaw and that of the Umbre are its feeble representatives. The tip of this 

 strong beak is not sharp, but is slightly emarginate, being one-eighth of an inch broad, 

 the emarginalion being still greater in the mandible. The outline of the lower margin 

 of the prce-maxilia is very elegant, more so than in the Boat-bill. Looking at its an- 

 terior commencement, we find it rising gently up to the middle of the side of the great 

 hook ; it then as gently descends, swelling outwards into the arc of a very large circle 

 to within ten lines of the angle, — the rest of the marginal line being nearly straight. 



The thinnest part of the bone is at the middle of the sides, as it is thick at the 



