MR. W. K. PARKER ON THE OSTEOLOGY OF BALANICEPS REX. 291 
the pre-maxillary, but the orbital margin of the lacrymal is turned outwards at a con- 
siderable angle. This facial development of the lacrymal is like what we see in the 
Crocodile, and still more fully in certain mammals, e. g. Bos, Ovis, Sus. In the 
Albatros, a thin bone, broad above and pointed below, articulates with the lacrymal 
near its base in front, and passes downwards to be attached by a ligament to the 
palatine. In Eagles, Falcons, and Hawks, a small supra-orbital is articulated to the 
long outstanding process of the lacrymal, and helps to give them their peculiar frowning 
aspect. This supra-orbital is seen again in certain Crocodiles, and also in some fishes, 
e.g. the Carp. That the lacrymal is not a dermal bone (as Professor Owen says), but 
‘an actinapophysis of the ethmoidal neural arch,’ see Professor Goodsir’s arguments 
in the work already referred to (p. 152). This far-seeing anatomist’s writings will not 
admit of condensation. If the lacrymal of the bird should turn out to be a ‘ prefronto- 
lacrymal’,’ then Professor Goodsir’s views concerning the next bone, the ‘ nasal’ of 
authors, will be seen to be mistaken. 
Nasal or “‘ Ethmoido-frontal.” (Pl. LXV. figs. 1 & 6, n.) 
As arule, those cold-blooded oviparous vertebrata with horny toothless jaws (the 
Chelonia) have no distinct nasals. Professor Owen, who stands unrivalled in osteolo- 
gical experience, has, we believe, seen only three exceptions,—e.g. in the recent 
Hydromedusa, and in the fossil Chelone planiceps and pulchriceps (see ‘ Rep. on Archet.’ 
p: 224). 
The views of Professor Goodsir upon this very difficult subject deserve the most 
attentive consideration ; and it is possible that even in the whole class of Birds there 
may be no distinct ‘nasals;’ in that case, that down-turned broad surface of the 
ethmoid, in such birds as the Vulture, the Hawk, and the Parrot, which, becoming 
ossified, converts the nostril into asmall round anterior opening, would be an exogenous 
nasal. The nasal of the bird, however, has no descending antorbital process bounding 
the olfactory nerve externally, for the antorbitals of the bird belong to, or coalesce with, 
the sclerotome next behind. Perhaps the ‘ pre-frontals’ continue membrano-cartilagi- 
nous in birds, or the so-called ‘ nasals’ represent their upper and outer surface ; or the 
lacrymals may be compound in their nature, although this is very unlikely; for it 
seems tous that the only ossified part of the prefrontal of the bird is the autogenous 
antorbital. 
In those birds which have a broad nasal with its bifurcations widely apart, e.g. the 
Rook and the Fowl, the nasal fossa is oval, the anterior bifurcating margin of this bone 
being its posterior boundary ; where the bone splits itself sharply, e. g. the Crane and 
Plover, the nasal fossa is of necessity angular behind. 
In Fowls and Ostriches, the pre-sphenoid appears on the roof between the nasals and 
sphenoido-frontals ; but in most birds these bones form a very perfect covering to this 
1 This is evidently the case when it coalesces with an autogenous antorbital process. 
