164 MR. W. K. PARKER ON THE OSTEOLOGY 
downwards from the process that embraces the skull-base. The vomer is altogether 
better developed than in the ‘‘ Gallinz,” and is indeed exactly intermediate between 
that of the Fowl and the Rail. 
The mandibles of Talegalla are strictly Gallinaceous, and yet the internal angular 
process is thicker and more clubbed; the posterior or external angular process is 
shorter, broader, and less falcate: here again we see a falling-off from the type. 
The os hyoides—the greater part of the skeleton of the last poststomal, and the first 
postcephalic arch—is strictly typical. The arrested hyoid cornua are cartilaginous for 
the anterior third and a little behind; they lie in the tongue: the basi-, uro-, and 
double thyro-hyals have their tips cartilaginous, as in the Fowl. In the Rail, as in 
most Grallze and many Palmipeds, the “‘ cornua minora” do not ossify, and are not 
so divergent; for the rest, the bones are feebler and less ossified even than in the 
Talegalla and the Fowl. 
I shall not go so much into detail in describing the osteology of the body of Tale- 
galla ; for, in the first place, those modifications of structure which indicate the 
curious affinities of outlying and aberrant groups of birds often cluster most within the 
cephalic structures; and secondly, I wish to do something to extend the knowledge 
of this most important branch of animal morphology the structure of the skull: at 
present the unknown is a forest, the known a very inconsiderable clearing. 
' The skeleton of the Talegalla has only one rival as to massive strength and the 
coarseness of its bony tissue, viz. the Apteryx. It is the Mylodon robustus of the bird- 
class ; and on examining it for the fiftieth time it strikes the observer with fresh sur- 
prise. The bones of one hinder extremity of a female, very dry and nearly free from 
oil, weigh as much as the entire skull and jaws together of both the Flamingo and the 
Sacred Ibis, viz. 5 drachms, 15 grains. The bones of one hinder extremity of the Great 
Toucan weigh 1 drachm, 4 grains, or one-fifth of the weight of those of the Talegalla. 
The entire skull and jaws of Ramphastos toco weigh 2 drachms, 55 grains; those of 
Buceros ruficollis (foem.) weigh 3 drachms, the rest of its skeleton 11 drs. 1 scruple,— 
the total skeleton of this large bird only weighing 14drs. 1 ser., or less than two ‘‘ troy ” 
ounces, and less than three times the weight of the bones of one leg of the Talegalla. 
Mr. Bartlett informs me that the huge eggs of the Talegalla are, as in the Crocodile, 
a long while incubating, and that the young bird is fully fledged before it is hatched. 
This is in striking conformity with the fact that the massive limb-bones are practically 
solid ; for I find it impossible to insert even very fine wire along the shaft of the bones. 
The humerus and the os femoris, thick as they are, contain air, the pneumatic passages 
being merely like pin-holes. The bones of the legs and wings are perfectly Gallinaceous 
in character, with all the unshapeliness of a Fowl’s bones exaggerated and as it were in 
caricature. The toe-bones correspond with the rest, and the terminal joints are covered 
with mighty claws, averaging an inch in length. The length of these claws made 
Swainson think that he had found a most absurd kind of bird, a “ Rasorial Vulture ”’ ! 
