PROF. W. K. PARKER ON AGITHOGNATHOUS BIRDS. 345 
the maxillo-palatine processes (m.p) is quite corvine; in texture they correspond with 
those of the Fern-Owl, and, indeed, are more spongy, the outer part of the distal process 
being a mere sieve of delicate bone. 
The bowing outwards of the zygomatic process of the maxillary (ma), and its slender- 
ness, are quite equal to what occurs in the Fern-Owl; but the jugal itself is a high 
compressed bone (fig. 7, 7), unusually high for a bird, and having no other rival in this- 
respect than the Baleniceps. 
In other parts of the face, and in the skull, this bird is a Crow with caprimulgine 
leanings and isomorphisms. Caprimulqus itself, as I shall show in another paper, has 
narrowly escaped from the Coracomorphous territory; whilst the Bell-bird, being of 
a lower type than the Old-World Crows, is a nearer relation to the Goatsuckers than 
to the more passerine “ Fissirostres.” Even that for which this bird is famous, its 
voice, appears to me to be no mere caw of a true and proper Crow, but something akin 
to the mysterious sounds uttered by the Goatsuckers of the New World. 
In concluding this instalment of my observations on the “ Aigithognathe,” I cannot 
help remarking that the subject seems to me to be worthy of great extension. 
As for the birds of South America, I shall be grateful to those naturalists who will 
in any way assist me in throwing light upon the various groups of the Coracomorphe 
of that region, or, indeed, of the other natural divisions of the Class; for from that 
land of enchantment we have already the Palamedea, the Cariama, the Sun-Bittern, 
and the Trumpeter (Psophia), and numberless other types well worthy of careful study. 
My belief, being fairly expressed, is this, namely that there (in South America) we 
haye representatives of the lost Miocene birds of our own geographical area. 
ADDITIONAL REMARKS ON THE GENERAL MoRPHOLOGY OF THE PALATE AND MANDIBLE. 
I would beg of the reader to believe that the limited region here taken for compa- 
rison is not conterminous with the ground I have been digging. 
This is not true of birds, as such, with regard to their structure throughout, nor of 
birds as a “ topmost fruitful bough” of the Vertebrate life-tree. 
Eyen the twigs of this bough have to be broken one by one, and not after they have 
been faggoted. This dark forest (Vertebrate morphology) may have the light let in 
upon it at some one spot by a laboured monograph of one type; or a fine line of light 
may be made to stream through it by the thorough working-out of one part or tract of 
the organization, the clearing being merely sufficient for the treading of the feet and 
for the peering of the eyes. 
The utmost degree of modification of the facial parts that has been attained by a 
mere fish (a branchiate Vertebrate) has been shown in my essay on the skull of the 
Salmon (Phil. Trans. 1873); but a new stand-point has to be taken with regard to the 
air-breathers, most of which have their faces modified largely in relation to the function 
VOL. 1x.—part v. December, 1875. 3A 
