PEOF. W. K. PABKER OX .^;GITHOGNATHOUS BIRDS. :-531 



it is one of the largest, relatively, in the whole of the " Coracomorphse," agreeing with 

 Pac]iyrliam])hi(s among the " Cotingidse " at one end of the series, and with 'the " Cor- 

 vidse " at the other end. 



1 find no trace of a separate " os uncinatum," nor of a process that can be certainly 

 claimed as its symmorph. Yet I suspect that the pedate base of the lacrymal is the real 

 element disguised, as a long lacrymal in the Coracomorphse will at times have an os 

 uncinatum at its outer angle — for example, in Sturnella militaris (Icteridse) and in 

 Phytotoma rara. 



The pterygoids (PI. LXI. fig. l,^^^) are very similar to those of Pipra (PL LVII. 

 fig. 1), but have the hamular or epipterygoid process much more developed ; they 

 articulate with the palatine and its borrowed mesopterygoid region. The palatines 

 are bevelled off behind, as in Pipra ; and in like manner the broad part is a mere 

 isthmus of bone, uniting the almost equal and equally pointed ethmo- and inter- 

 palatines with the fore-stretching main bar. From this bar there is a jutting snag, 

 outturned as in Pipra, but not denticulated : this is the very embryonic transpalatine 

 {t-lia), very similar in form and proportions to that of the embryo Eook (Monthly 

 Micr. Journ. Nov. 1872, pi. 35. fig. 1, pa). From thence forwards the palatine bar is 

 rather broad and very flat, and at its extremity has coalesced with the preemaxillary 

 (fig. 1). The palatine processes of the praemaxillary {p.px) are very distinct, as in 

 embryo Crows; but the nasals, prsemaxillaries, maxillaries, and jugals («, ^.r, mx,j) are 

 all ankylosed together. The maxillo-palatine processes {;mxp) have the stamp of low- 

 ness upon them ; they are broad-rooted decurved flaps of bone, essentially like those 

 of the " Cotingidee" and " Formicariidas." 



The importance of this type to the morphological zoologist will be best seen in the 

 next, a more specialized and nobler form of the " Coracomorphse." 



Example 18. Lanius collurio. 



Habitat. Great Britain. Section " Oscines," Miiller; family "Laniidse." 

 These rapacious passerines, the Butcherbirds, come next beneath the lesser Cor- 

 vidse, such as the Jay ( Gari'ulus) ; they are not equal to them ornithically. 



The whole structure of the skull is of a denser more fibrous bone than in the lower 

 related types, and is very similar to that of the Jay. The basitemporal (PI. LXI. fig. 3, 

 b.t) region is now a low triangle with its base behind. The rostrum of the parasphenoid 

 is slender and void of outstanding basipterygoid processes behind ; it is thoroughly 

 blended with the overlying trabecular beam. The notch in front of these parts is per- 

 fect ; and in front of the notch there is an ossified septum nasi in the adult (fig. 5, s. v). 

 Here, however, the ossification is not so intense as to mask the composition of the parts; 

 for the large postero-inferior bone is separate from the anterior and upper part, which 

 is not quite ossified below the large internarial fenestra (i.n. f). 



2 y2 



