596 SHUFELDT—OSTEOLOGY OF THE WOODPECKERS.  [0ct.5, 
Parker often speaks of having found a lacrymal in the Wood- 
peckers, and here in Prcozdes one certainly seems to exist, and it is 
represented by quite a sizable flake of bone semi-attached to the 
posterior margin of either nasal. It may explain the little bit of a 
nib of a process found at the same point upon the nasals of some 
other Prci_—Ceophleus, for example. /Prcoides has an orbit that is 
veritably cup-shaped, which reduces the interorbital septum to al- 
most #7, and proportionately the partition here between the orbits 
is quite as thick as it exists in certain caprimulgine types. Not- 
withstanding this a sizable fenestra pierces the septum in question. 
Os uncinatum, if present, is extremely rudimentary in character, 
while a foramen pierces the pars plana just within its external mar- 
gin about midway up the plate. Other cz show the same char- 
acter. 
Directing our attention next to the base of this skull, we are at 
first struck with the remarkably small size of the pterygoids, and 
this is enhanced by the relatively great proportions of the dome- 
like cranium that overshadows them. Each one develops a con- 
spicuous ‘‘ muscle-process,’’ and the mesopterygoid is interesting 
from the fact that it is more paddle-shaped than in any other Wood- 
pecker I have thus farexamined. They do not reach forward to the 
hinder ends of the palatine spurs of the palatines, but hold a posi- 
tion more as we find it among the Passeres. The basipterygoid 
processes are entirely absent. A nasal septum ossifies anteriorly 
and is represented by a mesial thread of bone and small, semi-de- 
tached plates. I fail to find a vomer present in this species, but 
it may be very rudimentary; at any rate there is not much room 
for it at its usual site under the rostrum, for here the palatine on 
either side curls closely up upon the nether surface of that bar, 
and in a way I have not observed in other Woodpeckers. Perhaps 
the small vomer was lost during maceration ; and at the present 
time I have but one skeleton of Picotdes arcticus. 
The posterior moiety of either palatine bone is but slightly wider 
than its prepalatine portion. For its whole length it is flattened, 
and the postero-external angle is inclined toward producing a pro- 
cess, which is directed bluntly backward and outward. A pala- 
tine spur is represented by a scraggly thread of bone, which on the 
right side passes forward above the interpalatine spine, to become 
attached again to the mesial margin of the palatine farther along. 
On the left side this connection is not made, so we have the usual 
