344 PROF. W. K. PARKER ON ^GITHOGNATHOTJS BIRDS. 



produced ; at the inner edge of the recurrent bands there is another ectosteal patch 

 (fig. 8, re. c, s.ina)). The vomer (figs. 5 & 8, ■«) is a copy of, or pattern for, that of the 

 young sylviine (PI. LV. fig. 13, v). 



Veiy large, squared in front, subcarinate, rough and cellular, this bone has a low- 

 type character ; it has fully coalesced with the ethmo-palatine laminae, and with them 

 forms to a large extent a nearly finished floor to the basifacial beam. I note nothing 

 more as belonging to the trabecular arch ; for there is no appearance of the os uncinatum 

 on either the larviform lacrymal or the bulbous pars plana (fig. 7, l,p.p). These latter 

 parts are of extreme interest here ; the lacrymal has a more than corvine development, 

 and has the shape of a caterpillar when moving with its procession, erect-headed. 

 Coming to the top, in front of the gi-eat ecto-ethmoid, it there is bent at a right angle, 

 and then twists itself in a sigmoid manner to reach the jugum {j), first wedging in 

 the angle of the pars plana (p.p). This lower part of the ecto-ethmoid is, like the 

 upper or frontal portion, all swollen and spongy, like that oi Hemipodius varius(P\. LIV. 

 figs. 9 & 10). The only room of any extent in the nasal labyrinth is in front, and is 

 supplied by the nasal branch of the ophthalmic ; the true olfactory region is occluded 

 by the bilobate prsefrontal mass, which is smoothed into flatness in front of the orbit. 



The pterygo-palatine arch is, on the whole, corvine : but the pterygoids {2)g) are ex- 

 tremely long and slender, and are elegantly arcuate ; they are but little laminate in front, 

 and but little uncinate behind {e.pg). 



There is a long, overlapping process of the pterygoid on the upper edge of the pala- 

 tine (fig. 7) ; and there appears to he no mesopterygoid. If this is so, we have a remark- 

 able caprimulgine character ; at any rate the segment must have been small, as the 

 palatines are very little crested above, where they support the basis faciei. The post- 

 palatine region is very turnicine, the ends being bevelled off" instead of being crested and 

 keeled ; and the inner edges of the bone are closely approximated, hiding the para- 

 sphenoid below, but do not make a true commissure as in the great " Fissirostres." As 

 in Hemipodius and Turnix (PI. LIV.), the interpalatine ridges and spurs form a large, 

 elegantly lyriform opening for the posterior nares. The upper or ethmo-palatine lamina 

 is of less extent than the lower, and is thoroughly ankylosed to the vomer. 



The transpalatine (t.pa), although at first view very caprimulgine, is not a general 

 leafy breadth of the bone as in the Fern-Owl, but its true segment is shown as a square 

 superaddition to the simple struthious or turnicine bar. The cartilaginous segment 

 of the young Kook (PI. LV. fig. 1, tpa) needs only to grow further outwards and to be 

 squared by periosteal growth, to be Uke what occurs in the Bell-bird ; this bird has 

 retained a certain embryonic distinctness in this particular segment. Whilst the ptery- 

 goid is a dense, non-aerated bone, the palatine, like that of Caprimulgus, is delicately 

 spongy, and altogether thick and inflated. 



From being very broad, it gets an extremely slender prsepalatine bar, as in Capri- 

 jnulgviS ; and this slenderaess of the fore part corresponds with Turnix. The outline of 



