PKOF. AV. K. PAEKEE ON ^GITHOGNATHOUS BIEDS. 327 



been " cared for with all this care," are illustratively shown in the more general type 

 last described, namely Homorus (PI. LX. figs. 1-4). 



The septo-maxillaries have become fixed with the vomerine moieties to form the 

 shoulders of the compound bone (compare figs. 2 & 7) ; but these paired ossicles do not 

 account for the spine which grows from the middle of the vomer above (figs. 5-7, 

 m.s.mx) ; this is not symmorphic with the long style in which the vomer ends in the 

 Humming-birds, which is in them merely an ongrowth of the two halves of the bone ; 

 but here the membrane-bone seen separate in Homorus (figs. 1, 2, 3, ms.mx) has 

 coalesced with the other vomerine elements. 



But for Homorus, I should have spoken more cautiously of the median vomerine 

 spine of Gymnorhina ; but now I speak boldly, and can show the sceptical reader the 

 same thing in many a type. It is, indeed, an ossification of the lower edge of the mem- 

 brane that fills up the " cranio-facial notch," and is therefore peculiarly ornithic; 

 he who would seek for it in other classes should consider that it cannot be there, as 

 they possess no such cleft in their facial axis. In Gymnorhina there is in this bone a 

 gTowth upwards, tending to fill the gap; this crest is fenestrate (fig. 7, m.s.mx). 



There are differencing characters in the two types here compared ; but the South- 

 American bird is merely a more embryonic and smaller bird than the Australian Piping 

 Crow, which in size and in specialization has stolen a march upon its meaner relative. 

 The observer reads this in a moment in the two palates (figs. 1 & 5) ; and the portrayal of 

 these parts on one scale makes the comparison easier. The short, stiff, uncinate ptery- 

 goids (fig. 5, pg) of Gymnorhina are not quite so alate in fi-ont as those of Homorus 

 (fig. l,]}g); yet they are in both ankylosed to the palatines. This continuity of bone- 

 matter makes a wall on either side of the posterior nasal canal, which is here much longer 

 than in Homorus ; and these ridges, belonging chiefly to the palatines, are not so strong 

 and outstanding as in " Dendrocolaptidae " and " Formicariidae;" they are also more 

 bevelled ofi" towards the end. The ridges which enclose the basifacial balk are princi- 

 pally due to the coalesced mesopterygoids ; and they end in front in a less arched ethmo- 

 palatine, which is ankylosed to the vomerine crura. Both the interpalatine plates, with 

 theii- aborted spurs, and the upper ethmo-palatine laminae are of small extent, fore and 

 aft, as compared with Homorus (fig. 1) ; hence the postpalatine region and the trans- 

 palatine spikes {t.pa) are much longer than in the lesser bird. 



These peculiar styliform transpalatines are found, as far as I have seen, only south of, 

 or upon the equator ; and their very curious character, always correlated with other 

 differences, might justify one in dividing the " Coracomorphse " into two sections, the 

 " Noto-Coracomorphse," and the " Arcto-Coracomorpha3." "With a most remarkable 

 amount of harmony between the two types, namely Corvus and Gymnorhina (PI. LV. 

 figs. 1 & 6 ; and PL LX. fig. 5), this modification of the palatines strikes the eye at 

 once ; and looking abroad we find it characterizing the " Formicariidee," " Dendroco- 

 laptidae," " Gymnorhinidae," " Tanagridae," and " Artamidae," and in those exquisite 

 little Australian types Acanthorhynchus and Pfilotis (" Meliphagidse "). 



