OF GALLINACEOUS BIRDS AND TINAMOUS. 181 



upper beak, which gives the vulturine cast to the Dodo's face, and which makes the 

 Didunculus worthy of the trivial name strigirostris, that curve of the " neb " is much 

 better seen in the Hemipodii than in Syrrhaptes. 



It would be a great satisfaction to the anatomist to know the habits of all these 

 curious birds, whether they are monogamous, as the Pigeons, or polygamous, as the 

 Fowls. 



Returning to the Hemipodius we find that the dentary margin of the premaxillary 

 is, as in Pigeons and Plovers, more completely fused with the corresponding portion of 

 the so-called maxillary or prevomerine bone than in the Gallinacese ; but these parts, 

 with the addition of the anterior end of the palatine, do not floor-in the nasal struc- 

 tures : except at the sides, more than the middle third is open. Towards the end of 

 this space the prevomerine turbinal processes may be seen (Pis. XXXIV. & XXXV. 

 fig. l,pv.). They pass from the body of the bone just where it gives off the retral 

 zygomatic style. These processes are smaller relatively in the Hemipodii than in any 

 other bird,— the " Tetraonids " (PL XXXVI. fig. 6) and the Syrrhaptes (PI. XXXVI. 

 fig. 1) coming next, and then the Tinamous (PI. XL. fig. 1), the Quail, and the larger 

 Gallinaceous birds. The jugal and quadrato-jugal {j., q.j.) are nearly as slender as the 

 zygomatic process of the prevomer. These parts are very slender in all the relatives 

 of the Hemipodius. The prevomerine processes pass inwards, and curve backwards, 

 nearly reaching the little broad vomer (PI. XXXIV. figs 1 & 4, v.), which is convex 

 anteriorly, with a short horn at each angle, and ending behind in a slight style on 

 each side for attachment to the palatines. The tip of the "rostrum" rests on the 

 upper concave face of the vomer. This bone is not to be seen in the skeleton of 

 Hemipodius varius in the museum of the College of Surgeons ; it may have been lost. 

 The posterior part of the palatines is well developed (pa.), having, as in the Pigeon 

 (PI. XXXVII. fig. 6), Plover (PI. XXXVII. fig. 1), and most typical birds, a pair of 

 keels to each bone. They are most like those of the Plover. In the Fowls (PI. XXXVI. 

 fig. 6) the inner keel is aborted, in the Struthionidse (including the Tinamous) both the 

 keels are aborted,— the palatine of these birds being a mere semicylindrical shell of bone, 

 with the middle part often mere membrane. All the anterior two-thirds of the palatine of 

 Hemipodius is a delicate style of bone. The chief parts of this palatine (as in typical 

 birds) are the narrow anterior portion, the wide posterior part with its two keels, the 

 orbital process, embracing the basisphenoidal rostrum, the vomerine processes, which 

 often coalesce with the vomer, and the narrow vertical articular surface for articulation 

 with the pterygoid. 



This latter bone, the pterygoid (pg.), has been partly described in treating of the basis 

 cranii ; anteriorly it presents a subtriangular vertical surface for articulation with the 

 palatine ; and above this facet is the orbital lamina, which embraces the rostrum more per- 

 fectly than the similar part of the palatine does. This bone is broader than that of the 

 Lapwing (PI. XXXVII. fig. 1) , less cellular than that of the Pigeon (PI. XXXVII. fig. 6) 



