MR. W. K. PAKKER ON THE OSTEOLOGY OF THE KAGIT. 507 



inward direction ; the posterior or zygomatic style is turned obliquely outwards, and 

 is clamped by the equally delicate jugal. The posterior maxillo-palatine bar lies at an 

 exactly right angle to the cranio-facial axis : it is 3 lines broad at its root, but as it passes 

 inwards it becomes only half that width ; and both its margins are elegantly conca^e. 

 This plate lies a considerable height above the deep palatine (figs. 2 & 3); it shows 

 itself very little in the interpalatine region ; but the widening of the palatine on the 

 inner side, near the fore end of the vomer, is due to the down-growth of this part of the 

 maxillary. This edge does not nearly meet its fellow of the opposite side ' ; but it is the 

 exact homologue of the sutural region of the palato-maxillary plate of the Hare. This 

 interpalatine portion of the maxillary is merely the lower edge of the large spoon- 

 shaped " posterior septo-maxillary lobe " (fig. 3), which is gently convex on the inner 

 face, scooped on the outside, moderately thick, and slightly fenestrate. The soft 

 inferior turbinal is attached to the upper and inner edge of this lobe ; below, the vomer 

 lies a small distance within it (as in its counterpart in the Lacertilia and Ophidia) ; and 

 in front it thickens where it underprops the descending crus of the nasal (fig. 3). 

 Inside the foot of the nasal, before the bone has narrowed to form its anterior palatine 

 portion, it developes a squarish mass, which is prickly in front, and is attached to the 

 cartilaginous wing of the septum ; this is the " anterior septo-maxillary spur," and is 

 the counterpart of the transverse vestibular bar of the septo-maxillary of the Cyclodont 

 Lizard. This hooked plate is better developed in Eu7-ypyga ; but attains its highest 

 condition in the PsopMa, where it is a large, transversely oval lobe, constricted round 

 its base, so as to be somewhat pedicellate ; it also reappears in Caprimulgus europmus 

 as a long, slender, sigmoid style. 



In Psofhia, as in Cyclodus, the nasal vestibule is formed by the facial splint (by the 

 distinct septo-maxillary piece in the Lizard) ; but in many birds, especially the Raptores, 

 the " anterior septo-maxillary spur " is but little produced inwards, and the vestibule is 

 completed by the largely developed transseptal bar : without a transverse section the 

 septo-maxillaiy of the Cyclodont might easily be mistaken for one side of an ossified 

 septum nasi like that of the Owl or Hawk. In the Eurypyga the maxillary conies 

 exceedingly close to that of the Kagu ; but the plate answering to the Hare's palato- 

 maxillary is extremely contracted before it expands submesially ; its " posterior septo- 

 maxillary " lobe is also much more fenestrate, and developes itself behind into an 

 elegant, flattened thimble-like pouch : it also appears more in the interpalatine space. 

 In the Psophia these plates are very thick and spongy (approaching those of the 

 Herons, Pigeons, Owls, &c.), and they have a large, oblong interpalatine portion. 

 There is no " postmaxillary " bone in the Kagu; and the "dentai-y" portion of the 

 maxillary is an extremely small angle just below the angular flap of the premaxillary 

 (fig. 3). The fusion of these parts, however, makes the boundaries somewhat indistinct ; 



' In this respect the Kagu is " Sohizognathous ;" but in the fresh state the wings of the nasal septum are 

 strongly tied to the maxillaries, and thus it is, practically, " Desmognathous." 



