530 PROF. W. K. PARKER ON 2GITHOGNATHOUS BIRDS. 
narial roof and floor, and a mueh more definite two-toothed transpalatine region. The 
roof-plate, or ethmo-palatine (e.pa), has lost its highly arched form, and has become more 
typical ; it coalesces with the vomer. The prepalatine bars are narrow behind, flatter 
in front, and bowed like those of Pachyrhamphus (Pl. LVII. fig. 4); their apparent 
width in front is partly due to their coalescence with the palatine process of the pre- 
maxillary. ‘That bone, the maxillary, and the jugal are all ankylosed together. The 
maxillo-palatine processes (m«.p) are of great interest, as they retain the non-peduncu- 
late shape of the low types, and are large, broad-based, pointed knives of bone, less 
typical, indeed, than those of the “‘ Formicariide” and ‘“ Dendrocolaptide.” They are 
like those of Lanius, but simpler (Pl. LVIII. figs. 3 & 4, and Pl. LXI. figs. 3 & 4, map). 
Example 17. Hlainea —-, sp.? 
Habitat. Barbadoes. Group “'Tracheophone,” Miiller; family “ Tyrannide.” 
In comparing together the skulls of an old Lanius collurio, a young first-summer bird 
of the same species, and an adult Hlainea, I saw clearly that I had before me three 
clear morphological strata (see Pl. LXI. figs. 1, 3, 4). The likeness in the fashion of 
these three palates, and their measurable degrees of difference, are neither fanciful nor 
accidental. If I can show that the skull of Lanius is, morphologically considered, a 
further metamorphosis of a T'yrannine type of skull, and that of Tyrannus the modifi- 
cation and ornithic improvement of a Cotingine type, then surely there must be some 
common root for all these. Below the Cotinga comes the Hemipod, and below the 
Hemipod the Tinamou and the terricolous Ratite; and here we have ground-leayes, 
stem-leaves, bracts, calyx. and corolla to our fanciful bird-tree: the metamorphosis is 
real, however expressed in words. 
The basitemporal region in Elainea is bat-shaped, and the well-shaped rostrum is of 
moderate size, and without basipterygoid processes (Pl. LXI. fig. 1, 4.4, pa.s). 
The cranio-facial hinge is perfect, and is bounded by bone both before and behind ; 
that in front is a well-formed thoroughly bony nasal septum (figs. 1 & 2, s. 2). This 
wall runs, in front, into the two recurrent laminze (re. ¢); it is then alate for the fore- 
most half, and the hinder part of the base is alate also where the nasal nerves run. 
The posterior part of the ale nasi is ossified; and the bony matter runs inwards above 
and in front of the maxillo-palatine process as the inturned lamina (fig. 1, 7. @./). The 
vomer (figs. 1 & 2, v), where it has utilized the vomerine cartilages and part of the 
alinasal cartilage, is formed of two swollen divergent lobes, each of which is open outside, 
(fig. 2), the hollow cavity within having a gaping air-passage. The rest of the double 
bone is flat and quite normal; no remains of the suture exist between the subsidiary 
septo-maxillary and the true vomerine piece. The thick spongy ecto-ethmoids are well 
seen above, have a straight outer margin, a huge common foramen above, and are scarcely 
pedate below. 
The lacrymal (fig. 2, 7) is pedate, and also shows a good face in the frontal region ; 
