PROF. W. K. PAEKBE ON ^GITHOGNATHOUS BIEDS. 343 



the recurrent laminee and the alinasal turbinals in these two types, the " Turnico- 

 morphae" and the " Coracomorphae." Moreover in Turnix these recurrent folds are of 

 immense size ; they are, as it were, the uptilted floor of the nose slit up from the wall, 

 nearly as far as to the fore end of the long, linear, valvular nostril. 



A far simpler form of nasal labyrinth may be taken as the common prototype of both 

 these, namely that of the common Snake (Matrix torquata). 



My unpublished figures of the morphology of this type show that the aliethmoid, 

 aliseptal, and alinasal outgrowths of the short and simple ethmo-septal plate are all one 

 common roof-scale of cartilage. 



Where this scale ends in front, it sends backwards, or passes into, on each side, a 

 large outcurved spatula of cartilage — the recurrent alinasal lamina or " cornu trabe- 

 culse," which is jammed in, with the nasal gland, between the applied edges of the septo- 

 maxillary and the vomer of the same side. These two ribbons of cartilage have the 

 same relative size as in the Hemipod, and generally coalesce with an upper labial, the 

 counterpart of the " vomerine cartilage " of the Hemipod. 



Now both the harmony and the disagreement of the Bell-bird and the Hemipod will 

 be understood ; the former is a true " Coracomorph," and yet has a certain turnicine 

 strain in it. 



The ala nasi (PI. LXII. fig. l,al. n) is a long oval scale ; and the nostril is a low arched 

 doorway : altogether this has a turnicine appearance. Part of the alinasal turbinal is 

 seen in the narial opening ; from below (figs. 5 & 8, a.tb) they are seen to be large flaps, 

 bent on themselves, and underlain behind by a narrow, intumed cartilage {i. a. I). 



As seen in figs. 5, 6, & 8, the alinasal and its turbinal end are cartilaginous horns to the 

 large vomer (w), which grows into the cartilage for some distance. At the shoulders 

 of this bone there is no appearance of a septo-maxillary ; but a little in front there is a 

 small suboval patch — a piece, as it were, of the fore part of the Ophidian bone. On 

 the right side (fig. 6) it is ankylosed to the maxillo-palatine (mx.p) ; and on the left it is 

 merely grafted on the nasal wall. These ossicles vary greatly ; but the thing of interest 

 here is the huge size of the recurrent laminae (fig. 8, re. c). These are long fiaps, gra- 

 dually decreasing in size backwards, and reaching close to the vomer, which has used 

 up the lobes of cartilage that form the spatulate end of these long laminae in the 

 Snake. Here we have not the structure of the Hemipod exactly repeated, but a case 

 of parallelism with it, as these bands are far larger than those spoken of as existing in 

 Vireosylvia. 



These laminae adhere closely to the septum in their front half, and then are free for 

 the remainder of their length ; the larger and smaller trabecular splints (figs. 8 & 9, tr^ 

 tr") are formed in the fibrous interspace between these ribbons of cartilage. Our native 

 Wren {Troglodytes vulgaris) rivals the Hemipod in its vomerine cartilages, and the Bell- 

 bird in its recurrent laminae. The disjecta membra of the Snake's septo-maxillary turn 

 up everywhere in the tracts that are symmorphic with the membrane in which it is 



