PEOr. W. K. PAEKEE ON ^GITHOGNATHOUS BIEDS. 311 



This skull, at first sight, might be taken for that of a Tanager ; but it is widely dif- 

 ferent : it corresponds in all essentials with that of Pipra. Notwithstanding the great 

 expansion of the face in front, the palatine region is less divergent behind, and in some 

 respects we get here a truer repetition of turnicine characters than in Pipra. 



The bat-shaped basitemporal region has a broader middle part (PI. LVII. fig. 4, b.t) ; 

 the basifacial bar {pa.s) has no basipterygoids. The hinge is not quite perfect; a bony 

 isthmus connects the ossified septum nasi and perpendicular ethmoid above. 



There is no fenestra in the deep, stout, thoroughly ossified nasal septum separating 

 the nasal from the trabecular portion (s. n, tr) ; and thus this type is, in this respect, 

 intermediate between the Tinamou and Syrrhaptes (" Gallinaceous Bu-ds," pi. xxxvi. 

 figs. 1 & 4 ; and " Ostrich Skull," pi. xv. fig. 8, s. n, c.f. c). The triangular expansion at 

 the fore part of the base of the septum is due to the coalescence with it of the " recur- 

 rent lamina." The depth of the septum brings it into immediate contact with that 

 retral process ; and the nose is not perforated as in Pifra, with its alate, shallow septum 

 (fig. 3). 



The vomer (figs. 4 & 5, «) keeps its breadth better than in Pipra ; its less convergent 

 crura are ankylosed to the ethmo-palatine spurs. As in Pipra (see fig. 2), the ox-faced 

 vomer has only utilized the clavate hinder part of the " vomerine cartilages" {v. c), which 

 converge towards the septum, and are separated from the inturned laminae {i.a. I) by 

 a very moderate distance (fig. 4). The alinasal wall with its tuxbinal is ossified 

 throughout by endostosis. It is not so hard as the vomer ; but these two bones keep 

 their own proper morphological territory ; and the line of junction of the two is at 

 the roof of a deep rounded sulcus (fig. 5, i. a. I, v), covered by the curling inwards and 

 downwards of the inturned angle of the alinasal. Exactly where the two osseous tracts 

 meet at their inner side,- a small limpet-like bony centre stands, looking forwards, and 

 forming a boundary-stone between the alinasal and vomerine regions : this is the septo- 

 maxillary {s.mx). It does not, as in the higher Coracomorphse, form an ectosteal patch 

 to the alinasal wall, which has ossified independently of it. The shoulders of the broad, 

 stout vomer are strongly thickened and downbent to articulate with the maxillo-pala- 

 tine plate (mx.p), the whole build of the palate being stronger than that of Pipra. 



Thus the inferior face of the vomer is excavated in front, and its fore edge has a squared 

 emargination. Another upper palatal element, the os uncinatum, or " palato-trabeculai- 

 conjugational bone," is here beautifully distinct (figs. 4, 6, 7, o. u), but has been dis- 

 placed outwardly by the corvine laciymal (I) from its earlier ecto-ethmoidal relationship 

 (p.p, e.eth). This small seed-like bone has a rounded outer edge, and articulates by an 

 inner suture with the lower and outer edge of the lacrymal ; its mother substance was 

 a secondary bud, growing from the outer edge of the trabecula. In this type the 

 great lateral ethmoids, although less swollen than in Hemipodius, have a greater lateral 

 development ; indeed they carry this to a greater extent than any known bird (figs. 4, 

 6, 7). The very narrow frontals covering the great outspread ethmoids (" prsefrontals ") 



