298 PROFESSOR W. K. PARKER ON THE 
which is a huge spongy ear of bone, never ossifies at its free infero-external angle,. 
but leaves a semi-oval tract of cartilage, a soft “pars uncinata.” In the Swift the 
whole is completely ossified; and here we meet with a curious correspondence with 
the Passerines of Australia and Celebes (Pacycephala and Hyloterpe, Part I. pl. 1xi. 
fig. 7,0. uw, and pl. lviii. figs. 3 & 4, 0.u). In the Swift, as in those birds, the “os unci- 
natum ” (fig. 3, 0. w) is a well-marked large lower lobe of the swollen pars plana; this 
part is like a bagpipe, and the short curved neck is turned inwards. These details, if 
they prove any thing, show how sharp is the angle intervening between the Hirundine 
branches of the Passerine stock and this distinct “leader,” the Cypseline branch. Could 
we go lower down, and see the common trunk, we should most likely find Cypselus 
growing out only one “internode” lower than Hirwndo. The latter form runs through 
all the metamorphosis, and attains to all the excellencies of the most perfect of the 
“winged fowl.” The Swift outdoes its Passerine relations in some, and stops far short 
of them in other, characters. Like the Bell-bird (Chasmorhynchus, Part I. pl. Ixii. figs. 
5-8), the Swift is formed, as it were, by a commingling of Passerine and Caprimulgine 
characters ; but in it the latter preponderate sufficiently to exclude it from the territory 
of the Coracomorphe. 
In the next group, the Nectariniide, the members resemble the Humming-birds, 
much as the Swallows resemble the Swifts. But these Old-world forms are not near 
relatives of those American forms; they are rather to be regarded as ¢somorphs than 
allies. The Swifts contain much of the Passerine nature, and come near the Swallows ; 
Humming-birds are a greater distance from the Passerines; and the Nectariniide are 
but little modified from the “‘ norma” of the ordinary Warblers. 
Example 68. Skull of Mectarophila grayi. Family Nectariniide. Group Oscines. 
Habitat. Celebes. 
In this type we have the smallest, as in the Raven we have the largest, of the highest 
or typical Coracomorphe ; in both there is the perfect syrinx, albeit in the latter it is 
too large an instrument for the production of “ sweet sounds.” Notwithstanding the 
“isomorphism” of these birds, the Nectariniide, with the Humming-birds, they are 
very wide apart in their structure. In the skull, as in the rest of their organization 
(compare Plate LILI. with the figures of the skull of Patagona gigas, Trans. Linn. Soe. 
ser. 2, Zool. vol. i. pl. 22), they also conform far less to the structure of the Passerine 
Meliphagide (Plate XLVII. figs. 1-4) than might have been supposed. The base of 
the cranium (Plate LIII. fig. 1, 0.¢, oc.c) is quite similar to that of a Sylvia. 
The pterygoids (pg) are gently arcuate, and are flattened from above downwards; they 
interdigitate with the postpalatine lamine and the mesopterygoid plates in front; and 
