290 PROFESSOR W. K. PARKER ON THE 
distinct osseous elements which it displays. The skull and face, as a whole, are perfectly 
typical, or like those of a true Sylvia; and the vomer, whilst quite normal, is relatively 
as large as in the Ratite. The nasal capsule is soft, all but the top of the septum 
(Plate LII. fig. 8, s.7). In the angle between the nasal and ecto-ethmoid there is, for 
a bird of this kind, a large lacrymal; it is broad above, and runs into a sharp point 
below. 
But the point of greatest interest is the occurrence in the Wagtail of a very distinct 
os uncinatum, the ornithic counterpart of the ethmo-palatine pedicle of the Batrachia. 
Here this bone is perfectly distinct from, although strongly attached to, the antero- 
inferior aspect of the large spongy pars plana (Plate LII. figs. 8, 8a, p.p, 0.u); it is 
W-shaped, or rather is like what the human zncws would be if it were a flat bone. In 
the Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava, Mont., Jen., & Selb., Budytes rayi, Macg.) the 
lacrymal is less developed, and the os uncinatum is a long, sinuous, arcuate thread of 
bone applied to the convex fore face of the thick spongy pars plana below (Plate LIT. 
fig. 8B, U, p.p, 0. U). 
In the absence of any marked osteological specializations, giving variety to the skull 
and palate of so many soft-billed types, these are, without controversy, of great value. 
But their zoological importance is much less than their morphological, seeing that by 
the sudden and unlooked-for breaking-out of these elements we are ever being brought 
face to face with the clearest evidence of the derived nature, from low and ancient 
types, of the most inexplicable parts of the organization of these high and perfect 
creatures. 
No special-purpose doctrine is of any service here: from another standpoint these 
things must be seen, 
Example 64. Skull of Golden Oriole, nestling (Oriolus galbula). Family Oriolide. 
Group Oscines. 
Habitat. North America. 
The palate of this type, in the young bird, is a sort of rough model of the Passerine 
structure; it also presents certain peculiarities deserving of notice. ~ The pterygoids 
(Plate LIT. fig. 6, pg, e.py) ave short and stout, with an imperfect epipterygoid process. 
The two lamine of the palate are about equal (i.pa, e.pa), the isthmus broad, and the 
rest of the bone the ordinary ornithic scythe-shaped bar, having, as yet, on its hinder 
outbend an irregular lozenge of hyaline cartilage (¢.pa). The fore end is a sharp point 
of bone passing, normally, on the inside of the palatal process of the V-shaped pramax- 
illary (p.px, pr.pa). The maxillo-palatine process is, as yet, thick-rooted, thick-stemmed, 
and having a backwardly-turned clubbed end. 
In front the maxillary (mz) runs into the sharp reentering angle between the dentary 
and palatal spikes of the premaxillary; and behind it sends a long jugal process almost 
to the quadrate, as in the Frog. The ox-faced yomer (v) has its right and left halves 
