314 PEOP. W. K. PAEKEE ON ^GITHOGNATHOUS BIRDS. 



of the " Cotingidse," having a long, sharp, inferior postpalatine keel on each side, between 

 which a small tract of the parasphenoid is seen. The middle palatine region is suddenly 

 dilated, but is of very small extent — the band connecting the base of the preepalatine bar 

 with the interpalatine spur being very narrow (fig. 8, i.jja), and the transpalatine 

 rudiments very small and gnawed {t.pa). The middle nasal passage is made vei-y wide 

 by the large rounded fold of bone which connects the " ethmo-" with the " interpalatine " 

 (figs. 8 & 9, e.pa). The praepalatine band is narrow, feeblish, a little bowed outwards ; 

 and ankylosed, in part, to the prsemaxillary. Here, with very typical pterygoids, the 

 palatines are the simplest and most turnicine I have hitherto seen in this great group, 

 with the exception, perhaps, oi Pitta. 



The maxillaries and jugals are ankylosed together; the maxillo-palatines (mx.p), 

 partly described already, have a very broad, pneumatic root, and are as struthious as in 

 the " Cotingidse." I miss the lacrymal, seen in the last family ; but the lateral ethmoid 

 is very similar ; both above and below it is more than flush with the rest of the face ; 

 it shows no separate os uncinatum ; yet the foot of the antorbital is very large (fig. 10,p.p). 

 Above that plate there is, as in the " Cotingidae," a large common chink for the nerves 

 going to the nose ; but the proximal part of the pars plana is much deeper (compare 

 figs. 6 & 10, ^.^j). 



Altogether this bird's face is of extreme interest, as instructive as that of the last 

 type. 



The structure of the face in ThamnopMlus atriccppillws is precisely like that of 

 T. doliatus. 



Example 7. Pitta melanocephala. 

 Hahitat. Borneo. Group " Tracheophonae," Miiller ; family " Pittidae." 

 This form is closely allied to, and yet differs considerably from, the last. 

 The basitemporal and parasphenoidal regions are the same as in Thamnophilus ; 

 but the fore face is straighter, and the angles of the mouth expand more, so that the 

 dentaty part of the prsemaxillaries is more outtumed (PL LVI. fig. 6, di.;px) ; the general 

 structure of the bone is coarser ; and altogether there is something more struthious in the 

 stiffness of form and general inelegance of build. Instead of the intense ossification of 

 Thamnophilus, the outer nasal structures are but littie ossified, principally the septum. 

 The vomer (y) is very flat below, and, above, rises towards the mid line, its groove 

 receiving the large septum, which is not notched off from the ethmoid ; the upper lobes, 

 in front, are moderately developed ; and the lower are swollen, so as to give a heart- 

 shaped appearance to this part : these latter lobes (fig. 7, v) are strongly articulated to 

 the maxillo-palatines {mxp). The vomer has evidently grafted itself upon the alinasal 

 turbinal, although it owes nothing, or scarcely any thing, of its size to that cartilage. 

 Yet this intimate union of the vomer with the nasal capsule puts Pitta into the typical 

 division ; in this respect it has " complete segithonathism " of the 2nd variety. 



