304 PEOr. W. K. PAEKEE ON ^GITHOGKATHOUS BIEDS. 



one notable exception, the ecto-ethmoid (e.eth) standing out flush with the rest of the 

 face, and cropping up on the forehead, in this latter respect agreeing with Crocodiles 

 and Monitor Lizards. 



The great, gently scooped antorbital wall (fig. 5, j^-p) is ossified in the young flyer by 

 its own centre — a centre which backs the middle and lower turbinal regions. But the 

 back of the upper turbinal region has, in the Crow, its own centre of ossification (fig. 5, 

 e.eth). This "upper turbinal bone" is seen in the retired, smaller ecto-ethmoid of Buteo 

 vulgaris and some other birds ; but here, in the Crow, it forms the top of the outstand- 

 ing " prsefrontal " bone. The first and fifth nerves have each their own chink or 

 passage, the pars plana growing into the aliethmoid between them. 



The lacrymal (fig. 5, I), with one exception (the same as above, namely Menura su- 

 j)erba), is, at its uttermost growth, a mere pupiform bar, thrust forwards by the huge 

 lateral ethmoid, and wedged in between it and the nasal. 



In a very large number of the ^githognathfe the lacrymal cannot be seen at any stage ; 

 and in many of those in which it does occur it soon ankyloses either with the nasal in 

 front or with the ethmoid behind. I find no orbito-sphenoid in the eye-socket of the 

 Coracomorphse, only a " prsesphenoid." 



Before passing to the next family, it may be mentioned that the vomer of the Corvidse 

 is not always typical ; in Fregilus graculus its anterior half is a decurved, narrow, thick 

 spoon, subacute terminally (PI. LV. figs. 10-12). 



Example 2. Eiiticilla 'phoenicurus juv. Europe. 



Habitat. Migrating in spring to Great Britain. Group " Oscines," Miiller ; family 

 " Sylviidse." 



To me it seems evident that the genus Sylvia contains the highest or most specialized 

 of the small Passerines, and this notwithstanding the corn-husking and fruit-crushing 

 powers of the small conirostral Passerines, which are the result of secondary specializa- 

 tions ; but in the fulness of their organization as to all that lifts a bird on high above 

 a reptile, or above a reptilian bird, these types are, as to family, what a blood-horse is 

 as to breed ; they are of the highest and the purest blood. That these birds (the very 

 aristocracy of the " Oscines " or songsters) are small does not much affect the question ; 

 for if we wish to look for a low bird of mean reptilian blood, we search for it amongst 

 the ponderous giants, the small-brained, wingless, raft-breasted Cassowaries and Emues. 

 It is as difiicult to see the fundamental reptile in these refined ovipara as it is to discover 

 the lineaments of the Caterpillar in Vanessa io. 



In this pin-feathered nestling of the Eedstart (Euticilla phoenicurus) I have given as 

 simple an expression of the two prseoral arches and the nasal sacs (PI. LV. fig. 13) as 

 possible, omitting nothing important. Being the palate of a very young bird, it will 

 difl'er less from what is seen in the adult of lower types than that of an old bird of this 

 genus. 



