382 PROF. W. K. PARKER ON ^GITHOGNATHOUS. BIRDS. 



In front of the fenestra the recun-ent lamina (re. e) is ossified (fig. 5) ; and behind 

 its posterior boundary there is another, smaller opening — a posterior nasal fenestra 

 (p. n.f). 



The alcC nasi are not ossified, except where they turn inwards, behind ; and here also 

 the aliseptal lamina is partly osseous. 



The fore part of the septal base is alate (fig. 4) ; and behind this the thick lower edge 

 of the large deep septum is pneumatic ; the large opening is seen from below (fig. 4, 

 s. n). In the young (fig. 3, v) the vomer is almost exactly the counterpart of that of 

 Elainea ; but its lobes are not so divergent. In the adult it is a huge bone (figs. 4 & 5, ■«) 

 alate laterally, and with large swelling pneumatic lobes above. So high are these lobes 

 that they allow the posterior septal (trabecular) bone to ride in between them ; for they 

 rise as a wall on either side. • The air-cell within opens on each side, looking also for- 

 wards ; these foramina gape widely, and show through the fore part of the vomer, the 

 diploe of which has been extensively absorbed to form this thin-walled, two-mouthed air- 

 bottle. The septo-maxillaries are lost in the lateral alse of the vomer. 



The pterygoids [pg), as in Elainea, are long and slender, well hooked behind, and 

 laminar in front. Even in the young the mesopterygoid has coalesced with the palatine : 

 in the old bird the pterygoids and palatines coalesced. The palatines {pa) are of great 

 interest zoologically. In the young (fig. 3) they have less of that weak outbent form 

 seen in Elainea, and the prsepalatine bars are wider; the bilaminar tract running 

 from the outer angle to the mid line is much longer fore and aft, and ends in front in 

 almost equal ethmo- and interpalatine spurs. 



The postpalatine keel {ptt-jja), running from the intei-palatine, is bevelled, as in 

 Elainea ; and the transpalatine spur (fig. 3, t.pa) is exactly such as that of Elainea 

 might have been if periosteal growths had gone on lengthening and sharpening the 

 retral process. In the old bird (fig. 4) all this is intensified. And now, if the reader 

 will refer to the figures of Hemipodius, Thamnophilus, Pachyrhamplms, Pipra, Elainea, 

 Lanius young, and Lanius old, he will see a most perfect series, with the exception of 

 the crowning typical form, namely Corvus (compare Plates LIV., LV., LVII. & LXI.)'. 



Near the fore end of the praspalatal band there is on the inside in the adult a broad- 

 ening of the bone with a free retral spur ; this is not, as in the Woodpecker, the end 

 of the palatine process of the praemaxillary, but the end of the recurrent alinasal 

 lamina, the right and left processes being wide apart and not near as in Elainea (fig. I) ; 

 the relation of the palatine to the pi-semaxillaries is quite normal (see figs. 1 & 3, p.px, 

 [jr. pa). 



The dentate, bract-shaped maxillo-palatines (mx.p) are very elegant hooked flaps of 

 bone, only pneumatic at their broad, non-pedunculate root : they are not typical. And 

 here also I have to note the " Laniidse " as being ielow the Crows. 



' If this is accidental, then we search in vain for order, law, or Lawgiver in the Cosmos ; for these grada- 

 tional instances of relation are only culled haphazard from thousands of bird-forms. 



