504 PROF. W. K. PARKER ON AGITHOGNATHOUS BIRDS. 
one notable exception, the ecto-ethmoid (e.e¢h) standing out flush with the rest of the 
face, and cropping up on the forehead, in this latter respect agreeing with Crocodiles 
and Monitor Lizards. 
The great, gently scooped antorbital wall (fig. 5, p.p) is ossified in the young flyer by 
its own centre—a centre which backs the middle and lower turbinal regions. But the 
back of the upper turbinal region has, in the Crow, its own centre of ossification (fig. 5, 
e.cth). This “upper turbinal bone” is seen in the retired, smaller ecto-ethmoid of Buteo 
vulgaris and some other birds; but here, in the Crow, it forms the top of the outstand- 
ing “prefrontal” bone. The first and fifth nerves have each their own chink or 
passage, the pars plana growing into the aliethmoid between them. 
The lacrymal (fig. 5, /), with one exception (the same as above, namely Menwra su- 
perba), is, at its uttermost growth, a mere pupiform bar, thrust forwards by the huge 
lateral ethmoid, and wedged in between it and the nasal. 
Ina very large number of the Agithognathe the lacrymal cannot be seen at any stage; 
and in many of those in which it does occur it soon ankyloses either with the nasal in 
front or with the ethmoid behind. I find no orbito-sphenoid in the eye-socket of the 
Coracomorphe, only a “ preesphenoid.” 
Before passing to the next family, it may be mentioned that the vomer of the Corvidee 
is not always typical; in Fregilus graculus its anterior half is a decurved, narrow, thick 
spoon, subacute terminally (Pl. LV. figs. 10-12). 
Example 2. Ruticilla phenicurus juy. Europe. 
Habitat. Migrating in spring to Great Britain. Group “ Oscines,” Miller; family 
“ Sylviidee.” 
To me it seems evident that the genus Sy/via contains the highest or most specialized 
of the small Passerines, and this notwithstanding the corn-husking and fruit-crushing 
powers of the small conirostral Passerines, which are the result of secondary specializa- 
tions; but in the fulness of their organization as to all that lifts a bird on high above 
a reptile, or above a reptilian bird, these types are, as to family, what a blood-horse is 
as to breed; they are of the highest and the purest blood. That these birds (the very 
aristocracy of the ‘‘ Oscines” or songsters) are small does not much affect the question ; 
for if we wish to look for a low bird of mean reptilian blood, we search for it amongst 
the ponderous giants, the small-brained, wingless, raft-breasted Cassowaries and Emues. 
It is as difficult to see the fundamental reptile in these refined ovipara as it is to discover 
the lineaments of the Caterpillar in Vanessa io. 
In this pin-feathered nestling of the Redstart (Ruticilla phenicurus) I have given as 
simple an expression of the two preoral arches and the nasal sacs (Pl. LV. fig. 13) as 
possible, omitting nothing important. Being the palate of a very young bird, it will 
differ less from what is seen in the adult of lower types than that of an old bird of this 
genus. 
