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VII. On the Skull of the Aigithognathous Birds.—Part II. 
By W. XK. Parser, F.RS., FDS, BZ.S., &c. 
Received January 1st, 1876. Read February 15th, 18761. 
[Piates XLVI.-LIV.} 
IN this second division of my account of that variety of the bird’s skull which Pro- 
fessor Huxley terms “‘ Hgithognathous,” I give a Table of the types examined, illus- 
trated, and described, both in this and in the first part, which appeared in the ‘ Trans- 
actions’ of the Society in 1875 (vol. ix. pls. liv.Ixii., pp. 289-352). 
Any thing but exhaustive, yet I flatter myself that both the zoologist and the anato- 
mical student will find a sufficient variety of types of palate worked out to enable them 
to form a very tolerable idea of the most important modifications to be seen in so multi- 
tudinous and yet so greatly diversified a group of the Carinate Birds. 
It will be seen how nearly the two terms given to these birds by the author just 
referred to are applicable to the same ornithic territory; his “ Coracomorphe,” are all 
£githognathous,—and how the latter territory just overlaps the true Corvo-passerine 
region. 
For, below, the simple Hemipods degin the Agithognathous palate; and, above, it 
hinges on to the Swifts, beyond the Swallows, the former interdigitating with the Goat- 
sucker and Humming-birds. Probably the Cypselide have as much right to be 
called Coracomorphe as some of the Southern Tracheophone, which are considered 
to be undoubted members of the great Passerine group. 
In the annexed Table the Hemipods and the Swifts are called “ Tracheophone ;” for 
the term is applicable to all birds not possessed of the complex syrina of the Songsters 
and Crows. It is a term difficult of application within the Passerine group; for many 
of those which possess the instrument have no knowledge of its use, and have merely 
harsh voices. In the Nuthatch (Sitta europea) Macgillivray (Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 49) 
found “ the inferior laryngeal muscles forming a small knob, and apparently single.” In 
the Australian Sittella I could discover no breaking-up of the contractor muscles of the 
trachea into separate bundles on the syrinx. I have therefore put both these genera 
among the Tracheophone. 
I do not see how such forms as Gymnorhina, Cracticus, Coronica, and Vanga can be 
placed with the Old-world Coracomorphe ; I have shown in my former paper (pl. ix. 
1 Since the sending-in of this paper several valuable contributions to the anatomy of the Passerine Birds, by 
Prof. Garrod, have appeared in the ‘Proceedings’ of the Society. See P. Z.S. 1876, pp. 506-519; 1877, 
pp. 447-452, and pp. 523-526. In the latter volume (pp. 413-418) there is an important paper, most 
welcome to me, on Attagis. 
VOL. X.—ParT vi. No. 1.—Jwne 1st, 1878. 2N 
