SKULL OF THE ZGITHOGNATHOUS BIRDS. 287 
the figure of the palate of Liothrix side by side with those of several soft-billed 
Passerines. 
The breadth and arcuation of the rostrum (figs. 8 & 9) have converted this part into 
a mask that hides its relationship to the soft-billed birds; it is such as is seen in 
Pipra (Cotingide, see Part I. pl. lvii. figs. 1-3). Yet this does not remove it far 
from the rostrum of a Wagtail (Plate LII. fig. 8); nor is it a greater modification of 
the fore face than we see in the Flycatcher (Muscicapa grisola). If the bill of that 
bird were slightly more decurved, and somewhat stouter, the two would be much 
alike; but these birds are far apart, and are here mentioned together for illustration 
merely. Compared with that of Parus ater the skull of Panurus is much more delicate ; 
and in the palate all Parine stoutness is absent (compare figs. 1 & 8, Plate LI.). 
The pterygoids (pg, e.pg) are very long and slender; and the epipterygoid hook is a 
flat crest, not a rounded hook as in Parus. The fore end of the bone has its usual 
spatulate form; but the laminated part is very large, and the triangular mesopterygoid 
segment, superadded to the palatine, is of medium size. The postpalatine keels 
(pt. pa) are normally passerine, being steep and having an almost vertical emarginate 
posterior edge. The broad part of the palatines is very similar to what is found in Pra- 
tincola, Muscicapa, and Liothrix (Plate LII. figs. 9-11). The transpalatine angle (Plate 
LL fig. 8, t.pa) is a small, stunted, and somewhat outturned spur; this part is moderately 
steep. The interpalatine spurs are blunt, the ethmo-palatines sharp and triangular, 
reaching further forwards (i.pa, e.pa). The prepalatine bar (pr.pa) is a long narrow 
strap of bone, running into the rostrum by complete ankylosis; it slowly broadens in 
its fore half; and the right and left bars leave a large prevomerine space, in which are 
displayed the elegant coils of the olfactory vestibule. The inwedged maxillaries (mx, 
d.pa) run in between the prepalatine bar and the retral part of the premaxillaries quite 
normally. 
The nasal, by its thick outer edge, hinges on to the skull (fig. 9, 2, e.eth); but the 
inner part of the lamina and the nasal processes of the preemaxillaries are ankylosed by 
their thin fibrous ends to the skull. The median process of the premaxillaries is sup- 
pressed; the palatal processes are ankylosed to the palatines and to their own dentary 
edge (d.pa). The maxillo-palatines are, in stalk and blade, like those of the Paride ; 
but the latter part, although thick and pneumatic, is smaller (fig. 8, Mex.p). 
The vomer (v) is like that of the Tits, in that its legs cling towards each other; and 
then the bone does not keep straight at its sides as in most soft-billed types: but this 
convergence is also seen in the Swift (Cypselus) (Plate LI. fig. 1, v). The fore edge of 
the bone is much more like that of an ordinary Passerine, having a thick low carina in 
place of an emargination. Its shoulders are broad where the graft is upon the inturned 
nasal wall (i.n.w); and although this part is, like the enclosed turbinal, calcified con- 
siderably, there is no separate septo-maxillary ossicle ; nor is there in the Tits. The 
nasal labyrinth is not Parine, but Sylviine, with special modifications of its own (see 
