PROFESSOR OWEN ON CNEMIORNIS. 259 
skulls of the Common Goose, and is exceptionally obliterated in Plectopterus gambianus, 
as it is in Cereopsis. 
The hind part of the bony palate is emarginate in Cnemiornis (Pl. XXXYV. fig. 4), but 
less deeply than in Cereopsis (ib. fig. 9); its outer angles extend backward and upward, 
internal to the palatines, and are continued into the swollen pneumatic or “antral” 
ends of the maxillaries, the outer wall of which is cribriform, or reticulate, in Cnemiornis 
(ib. fig. 10, 21*). The anterior, horizontally lamellate, ends of the palatines (fig. 4, 20) 
coalesce with the maxillaries (ib. ib. 21) between the “antero-palatal” plates and the 
angle to which the expanded end of the jugal style (ib. fig. 7, 26) is attached. 
From these attachments the palatines (20), retrograding, lose transverse and gain 
vertical extent, and this suddenly at their hind ends, from the upper and inner side 
of which a “nasal lamella” extends inward and forward to meet its fellow, and cir- 
cumscribe there the palato-naris (ib. figs. 4 & 9, f'). A ridge along the inner side of 
the free part of the palatine (ib. ib. 20’) seems to mark the inner boundary of the 
palatal surface; below this the “nasal” plate extends, with a concave surface next the 
meatus, to the terminal expansion; the outer surface is smooth and convex. 
The bony palate anterior to the vacuity (fig. 4, 13) is divided into three longitudinal 
channels, of which the median one is deepest; but all gradually shallow to the common 
palatal level close to the broad terminal alveolar or rostral border. 
From the conformity with Cereopsis of the articular cups for the bicondylar head 
of the tympanic, we may infer a similarity of that bone in Cnemiornis; and a like 
conformity of the pterapophyses (ib. figs. 4 & 9, 5') supports the same inference in 
regard to the pterygoids, and strengthens that in regard to the tympanic. Both 
these skull-bones are wanting in my specimens of Cnemiornis, as in that of Dr. Hector. 
The mandible of Cnemiornis shows the lamellirostral character of the ectocoronoid 
articular process (ib. figs. 1, 5, g). The ordinary coronoid (ib. g) is higher than 
in Cereopsis (ib. fig. 6, g), and has an angular form. The alveolar border of the 
dentary between the coronoid and the punctate symphysial end is smooth, rather 
swollen, and, as it were, bent over to the outer side of the mandible, where it over- 
hangs the more depressed lower part of that surface. This is relatively deeper than 
in Cereopsis, the whole mandible being deeper and broader in proportion to its length, 
and with the fore end more squarely terminated. 
The articular channels (fig. 5, w, x) for the tympanic are divided or defined by a 
longitudinal ridge, as in Cereopsis. The outer groove (w) is partly supported by 
an ectarticular process; the inner one (x) by a longer entarticular process, which bends 
upwards and terminates in a swollen apex. The angular process (30) is relatively shorter 
and deeper in Cnemiornis than in Cereopsis and Anserines generally. The oblique 
suture between the subangular (29) and dentary (32) is traceable in Cnemiornis as in 
most other Lamellirostrals. In the transverse joint between the nasal base of the upper 
