324 PROF. W. K. PARKER ON &GITHOGNATHOUS BIRDS. 
My third example of these South-American “ Dendrocolaptide,” is twice as large as 
the others; it is likest Muscisaxicola, and is of: great interest, inasmuch as it wnderlies 
the Piping Crow, just as Grallaria underlies the Wood-Swallow (Artamus). 
If this should seem to be fanciful, I would request the most imaginative believer in 
sudden, separate creations, to compare the two as they have been drawn by me in Pl. LX. 
(figs. 1 & 5). 
Moreover, if the same grave doubter of the unity of Nature will supply me with the 
ripe chick of a Piping Crow, I will promise to make a drawing of its palate that shall be 
superimposable on that of Homorus, and the twin drawings shall, for lack of difference, 
be undistinguishable. 
On the whole, this type comes very close to Vendrocolaptes ; and the first thing to be 
remarked is, that beneath the metamorphosed apices of the trabeculae we come upon the 
basipterygoid processes, springing from the basitemporal bones, as in Dendrocolaptes 
(see Plate LX. fig. 1, and Pl. LIX. fig. 1, b¢, b.pq). 
The parasphenoidal rostrum (pa.s) is full behind, and narrows gently forwards; it 
scarcely projects below the hinge; the crest of the trabecule is of moderate height, 
below the interorbita] fenestra. The septum nasi is well ossified, alate, and typical 
(Pl. LX. fig. 4, s.2); it is separated from the diminished front end of the meso-ethmoid 
(p.e) by synchondrosis, as in Synallavis (Pl. LIX. fig. 8, s.n, p.e); so that the notch 
is only half through the ethmo-septal plate. The ossified septum sends its bony matter 
along the well-marked recurrent lamina (7c. ¢); and this process lying below the septal 
subnasal ale (¢), a space is formed; this is the well-known perforation of the ornithic 
nostrils. Here the alinasal floor is large and unossified (n. f); and the wall (fig. 4, 2. w) 
is partly ossified behind. 
The alinasal and inferior turbinals are soft, or nearly so; behind the flat part of the 
septum, which is ossified—a true facial (trabecular) bone, there is a median ossicle, 
one of the “ septo-maxillary ” series (figs. 2 & 4, m.s.ma); we shall find this bone in 
the next higher type. The vomer (figs. 1 & 2, v), is of immense breadth in front, and 
very spongy; it soon narrows; and its crura are compressed and wide apart. A point 
of cartilage still unossified on the inner angle of the large upper lobe of the vomer 
shows that here this bone largely owes its size to the vomerine cartilages (v. c); they 
are also partly ossified by a pair of septo-maxillaries, which form large epiphyses to 
the vomer (figs. 2 & 3, sma). The groove on the upper surface of the vomer is — 
narrowish and tolerably deep. In this type the alinasal turbinal is attached to the 
large septo-maxillary ; and this kind of complete egithognathism is of the first variety. 
The ethmoidal region is wholly dendrocolaptine: the falcate pars plana (p. p) is widely 
severed from the roof, and carries a seed-shaped “os uncinatum” (0. w) on its out- 
turned extremity; this, as we have seen, is an endo-skeletal element of the first or tra- 
becular arch. 
The pterygo-palatine arch is true to the family character. The short, straight ptery- 
