272 PROFESSOR W. K. PARKER ON THE 
number of forms which would connect these families together. In nearly all that 
distinguishes a Bunting from a Finch this bird agrees with our native kinds; the 
most that can be said is that its rostrum is more Fringilline. But even here the Snow- 
Bunting comes in, whose rostrum has its special Emberizine characters much softened 
down from what we see in 2. miliaria. 
After the Cardinals and the Buntings have been culled out from among the typical 
families, there remain whole hosts of genera, certain groups of which, perchance, would 
be found to possess cranio-facial specializations as important as those I have just 
described. 
Example 51. Skull of Grosbeak (Coccothraustes vulgaris). Family Fringillide. 
Group Oscines. 
Habitat. Great Britain. 
We come now to those lesser Conirostral Passerines in which that kind of speciali- 
zation is required by which a bird of this order may become a fruit-breaker or a corn- 
husker. These results are arrived at in the skulls of these birds without any of that 
superadded desmognathism which is seen in certain southern types, such as Gynumo- 
rhina, Artamus, &c. (Part I. pls. lviii. & lx.). I shall select one of the largest, or 
northern, and one of the smallest, or southern, Fringilline forms, for the description of 
this kind of Zgithognathous skull, and then give a median type. Then the Lark’s 
skull will connect these stout-faced forms with those of the soft-billed songsters. 
There are certain secondary modifications of the skull of the Grosbeak which remind 
the observer of what is seen in that of a Parrot; but these are merely isomorphic, and 
no two skulls within the range of this Class can be found more entirely different in 
their morphology. All that ridgy strength seen in the skull of Coccothraustes, and 
the very useful although extremely rough hinges formed by the apposed bones when 
the rostrum and hinder face and skull meet—these modifications are required for 
mechanical purposes in this strong-headed bird, and have little morphological meaning. 
The quadrate is perfectly Fringilline; but the parasphenoid (Plate L. figs. 1 & 3, pa.s) 
is narrow, and has its lower surface smoothly rounded for the adapted superior surface 
of the pterygo-palatine arcade, by which it is most closely embraced (fig. 3). In Parrots 
that arcade embraces the parasphenoid very little, and the lower surface is carinate and 
not rounded, The strong, straight, ridgy pterygoids (pg) have a very perfect cup for 
the ball on the fore edge of the quadrate, and above this cup the most notable epiptery- 
goid hook (¢.pg) to be seen in the “ Carinate.” The anterior spatulate part of the bone 
is two fifths the length of the whole; and the raised margin of the spatula runs, below, 
as a ridge on the shaft ; this part has a long ligamentous attachment to the palatine. 
The amount of modification undergone by the palatines may be seen if the primary 
form of the palatine bar of a Passerine bird be considered; and that is the same 
in all. 
