314 PROF. W. K. PARKER ON £&GITHOGNATHOUS BIRDS. 
of the “ Cotingide,” having a long, sharp, inferior postpalatine keel on each side, between 
which a small tract of the parasphenoid isseen. ‘The middle palatine region is suddenly 
dilated, but is of very small extent—the band connecting the base of the prepalatine bar 
with the interpalatine spur being very narrow (fig. 8, ¢.a), and the transpalatine 
rudiments very small and gnawed (¢.pa). The middle nasal passage is made very wide 
by the large rounded fold of bone which connects the ‘‘ ethmo-” with the “ interpalatine ” 
(figs. 8 & 9, e.pa). The prepalatine band is narrow, feeblish, a little bowed outwards; 
and ankylosed, in part, to the premaxillary. Here, with very typical pterygoids, the 
palatines are the simplest and most turnicine I have hitherto seen in this great group, 
with the exception, perhaps, of Pitta. 
The maxillaries and jugals are ankylosed together; the maxillo-palatines (ma.p), 
partly described already, have a very broad, pneumatic root, and are as struthious as in 
the “ Cotingide.” I miss the lacrymal, seen in the last family ; but the lateral ethmoid 
is very similar; both above and below it is more than flush with the rest of the face ; 
it shows no separate os uncinatum ; yet the foot of the antorbital is very large (fig. 10, p.p). 
Above that plate there is, as in the “ Cotingide,” a large common chink for the nerves 
going to the nose; but the proximal part of the pars plana is much deeper (compare 
figs. 6 & 10, p. p). : 
Altogether this bird’s face is of extreme interest, as instructive as that of the last 
type. 
The structure of the face in Thamnophilus atricapillus is precisely like that of 
T. doliatus. 
Example 7. Pitta melanocephala. 
Habitat. Borneo. Group “ Tracheophonee,” Miiller; family ‘‘ Pittide.” 
This form is closely allied to, and yet differs considerably from, the last. 
The basitemporal and parasphenoidal regions are the same as in Zhamnophilus ; 
but the fore face is straighter, and the angles of the mouth expand more, so that the 
dentary part of the premaxillaries is more outturned (PI. LVI. fig. 6, d.pa); the general 
structure of the bone is coarser ; and altogether there is something more struthious in the 
stiffness of form and general inelegance of build. Instead of the intense ossification of 
Thamnophilus, the outer nasal structures are but littte ossified, principally the septum. 
The vomer (v) is very flat below, and, above, rises towards the mid line, its groove 
receiving the large septum, which is not notched off from the ethmoid ; the upper lobes, 
in front, are moderately developed; and the lower are swollen, so as to give a heart- 
shaped appearance to this part: these latter lobes (fig. 7, v) are strongly articulated to 
the maxillo-palatines (map). The vomer has evidently grafted itself upon the alinasal 
turbinal, although it owes nothing, or scarcely any thing, of its size to that cartilage. 
Yet this intimate union of the vomer with the nasal capsule puts Pitta into the typical 
division ; in this respect it has “ complete egithonathism” of the 2nd variety. 
