OF GALLINACEOUS BIRDS AND TINAMOUS. 171 



below, the sulci notch the frontal margin ; and their function is to carry vessels for the 

 nourishment of the core and the " horn." The thick narrow anterior part of the frontals 

 extends for a third of an inch before we reach the lachrymals, which are truly cracine, 

 being but little expanded laterally, having a thick descending process, and containing 

 air, and not fat, as in Numida. In the latter bird the broad frontal roof is short, and is 

 nearly flush at the margin with the very large, flat superorbital plate of the lachrymal ; 

 so that there is no narrow intervening portion ; the descending plate of the lachrymal is 

 aberrantly strong in Oreophasis. Behind and mesiad of the lachrymals, there is on 

 each frontal of Oreophasis a short ovoidal sulcus, going inwards and backwards, evi- 

 dently a bed for the posterior end of the nasal gland : this is a very unlooked-for cha- 

 racter ; in Tinamus these glands are altogether pluvialine, and do not lie at all within 

 the orbit. The horn-core is 16 lines high and 6 wide at the middle. The extreme 

 coarseness of the upper part of the Guineafowl's skull is in great contrast with the 

 typically ornithic character of the skull of Oreophasis. They both agree in a curious 

 departure from the structure of Fowls generally ; for the process of the squamosal is 

 aborted, and therefore does not bridge over the temporal fossa. In this bird the orbital 

 septum is rather imperfect ; but an older individual would have shown a perfect plate. 

 The ah-ethmoid and the antorbital are ossified to some considerable extent, as in Crax ; 

 but in front of the middle ethmoid there is only cartilage above, as usual ; whether, 

 like Crax, the inferior septal bone existed and formed the prevomers, I cannot say : 

 these parts are lost in the skull under examination ; so also is the vomer. The pala- 

 tines are less perfect than in Crax; the pterygoids are like those of that bird; so are 

 the jugals and and quadrato-jugals. The upper and lower jaws (premaxillee and man- 

 dibles) agree well with those of the Fowl and Pheasant, not being so high and strong as 

 in Crax and Numida ■ the posterior angular process is not so much curved upwards as 

 in the Fowl. There are sixteen cervical vertebrse -. the penult with styloid ribs more 

 than an inch and a half long; the last with large free ribs, having each a broad ap- 

 pendage : this last cervical vertebra forms one piece by anchylosis with three of the 

 dorsal, the last being free : there is one pair of sacral ribs ; and these have large float- 

 ing hsemapophyses. There are about sixteen sacral vertebrae, and six caudal, the last 

 or compound bone being very large (H inch long) ; the last three have anchylosed, 

 forked hypophyses. The two last ribs have no appendages. The three first pairs of 

 dorsal ribs are exceedingly broad, 3^ lines at the widest part, something like those 

 of the Apteryx. The sternum is precisely like that of the Brush-Turkey {Talegalla), 

 but difiers from the Curassow's in the deficient episternal plate or keel ; the angular 

 process of the furculum is better developed than either that of Crax or of Talegalla, 

 but it is less than in the Fowl. There is nothing to remark in the structure of 

 the wing-bones : as in Dendrortyx, the thigh-bones are very long. The tibia has its 

 ridges strong; the fibula is only 2 inches long; the tarso-metatarsi rather delicate; 

 the toes are moderately long and strong ; the heel, on the same level with the rest of 



