PEOP. W. K. PARKER ON ^GITHOGNATHOUS BIRDS. 317 



pterygoid ; but they are greatly developed above by a mesopterygoid segment, larger 

 than that of Pitta. 



So also we have in Grallaria slenderer prsepalatine bars {pr.pa) and much more 

 development of the transpalatine spike {t.jia), which is here in a state very common in 

 the higher Southern Coracomorphae. The arrest of the lower spike of the palatine 

 (interpaiatine, i.pa), the coil of the upper or ethmo-palatine {e.pa), and the narrowness 

 of the band connecting these laminse with the outer edge, these are all pittine cha- 

 racters ; but this bond is oblique, and not transverse as in Pitta ; in this, it agrees with 

 the next and much higher type, namely Artamus. The elements of the upper jaw and 

 zygoma are strongly soldered together ; and from the maxillary region there grow 

 struthious maxillo-palatines (mx.p), exactly like those of Pitta. 



The nerve-passage above the antorbital is narrower than in Pitta ; and the plate itself 

 is thinner and more produced at its angle (fig. 8, p.^) ; but there is no sign of either 

 a lacrymal or an " os uncinatum." 



On the whole, the cranio-facial differences seen in these two types, whose habitat is 

 so far apart, merely bespeak a subgeneric distinction. Close to the Struthionidse in 

 certain respects, in others they have made a stride past the lower Coracomorphse gene- 

 rally. That the lower struthious characters are due to arrest at a stage which corresponds 

 to the end of the second third of incubation in the true Crows (Corviis) and in the Fowl, 

 does not affect the relationship of these birds to some lost forms of the " Ratitae." 



Example 9. Artamus leucorhinus. 



Habitat. Celebes. Group " Oscines," Miiller ; family " Artamidse." 



The last instances were ttvo-faced; they looked to the Ratitse, and to the nobler 

 Southern Coracomorphee. My present instance is also one of these. 



Looking at the palate of this " Wood-Swallow," it is difficult to say to which of these 

 two types it is most related ; it is in some things intermediate between them. This great 

 similarity is modified by two things, namely by far intenser ossification and by complete 

 ornithic metamorphosis. Although the growth of another branch, yet this bird culmi- 

 nates, as a southern type, at nearly the same level as the Piping Crow {Gymnorhina) . 



The basitempoi-al region (PL LVIII. fig. 1, h.t) is less evidently trilobate than in 

 Pitta ; and the parasphenoidal region (j»a.s) is less bulky. The rostrum ends at an 

 unusual distance behind the hinge ; and the basis faciei shows no mark of its former 

 compositeness. 



The hinge, or cranio-facial cleft, is perfect, totally unlike its pittine prototype ; and 

 the fore part of the middle ethmoid shallows gradually, and is rounded in front. The 

 trabecular and nasal elements are all ankylosed ; and the bone here, as in the rest of the 

 skull, is more elegantly light and spongy than in Grallaria and Pitta. 



As in Grallaria, the nasal vestibule is of very great size ; but here it is ossified to an 

 unusual extent ; and the nasal floor, so small in the types just described, but largely 



