MR. W. K. PARKER ON THE OSTEOLOGY OF THE KAGU. 507 
inward direction; the posterior or zygomatic style is turned obliquely outwards, and 
is clamped by the equally delicate jugal. The posterior maxillo-palatine bar lies at an 
exactly right angle to the cranio-facial axis: it is 3 lines broad at its root, but as it passes 
inwards it becomes only half that width; and both its margins are elegantly concave. 
This plate lies a considerable height above the deep palatine (figs. 2 & 3); it shows 
itself very little in the interpalatine region ; but the widening of the palatine on the 
inner side, near the fore end of the vomer, is due to the down-growth of this part of the 
maxillary. This edge does not nearly meet its fellow of the opposite side!; but it is the 
exact homologue of the sutural region of the palato-maxillary plate of the Hare. This 
interpalatine portion of the maxillary is merely the lower edge of the large spoon- 
shaped “ posterior septo-maxillary lobe” (fig. 3), which is gently convex on the inner 
face, scooped on the outside, moderately thick, and slightly fenestrate. The soft 
inferior turbinal is attached to the upper and inner edge of this lobe; below, the vomer 
lies a small distance within it (as in its counterpart in the Lacertilia and Ophidia); and 
in front it thickens where it underprops the descending crus of the nasal (fig. 3). 
Inside the foot of the nasal, before the bone has narrowed to form its anterior palatine 
portion, it developes a squarish mass, which is prickly in front, and is attached to the 
cartilaginous wing of the septum; this is the “anterior septo-maxillary spur,” and is 
the counterpart of the transverse vestibular bar of the septo-maxillary of the Cyclodont 
Lizard. This hooked plate is better developed in Eurypyga; but attains its highest 
condition in the Psophia, where it is a large, transversely oval lobe, constricted round 
its base, so as to be somewhat pedicellate ; it also reappears in Caprimulgus europeus 
as a long, slender, sigmoid style. 
In Psophia, as in Cyclodus, the nasal vestibule is formed by the facial splint (by the 
distinct septo-maxillary piece in the Lizard); but in many birds, especially the Raptores, 
the “anterior septo-maxillary spur” is but little produced inwards, and the vestibule is 
completed by the largely developed transseptal bar: without a transverse section the 
septo-maxillary of the Cyclodont might easily be mistaken for one side of an ossified 
septum nasi like that of the Owl or Hawk. In the Eurypyga the maxillary comes 
exceedingly close to that of the Kagu; but the plate answering to the Hare’s palato- 
maxillary is extremely contracted before it expands submesially ; its “ posterior septo- 
maxillary” lobe is also much more fenestrate, and developes itself behind into an 
elegant, flattened thimble-like pouch: it also appears more in the interpalatine space. 
In the Psophia these plates are very thick and spongy (approaching those of the 
Herons, Pigeons, Owls, &c.), and they have a large, oblong interpalatine portion. 
There is no “postmaxillary” bone in the Kagu; and the “ dentary” portion of the 
maxillary is an extremely small angle just below the angular flap of the premaxillary 
(fig. 3). The fusion of these parts, however, makes the boundaries somewhat indistinct ; 
’ Tn this respect the Kagu is ‘‘ Schizognathous ;” but in the fresh state the wings of the nasal septum are 
strongly tied to the maxillaries, and thus it is, practically, “‘ Desmognathous.” 
