PEOF. W. K. PAEKEE ON ^GITHOaNATHOITS BIEDS. 345 



the maxillo-palatine processes (niT.j)) is quite corvine ; in texture they correspond with 

 those of the Fern-Owl, and, indeed, are more spongy, the outer part of the distal process 

 heing a mere sieve of delicate bone. 



The bowing outwards of the zygomatic process of the maxillary (mx), and its slender- 

 ness, are quite equal to what occurs in the Fern-Owl ; but the jugal itself is a high 

 compressed bone (fig. 7, J), unusually high for a bird, and having no other rival in this- 

 respect than the Balceniceps. 



In other parts of the face, and in the skull, this bird is a Croio with caprirrndgine 

 leanings and isomorphisms. Ca^rhmdgiis itself, as I shall show in another paper, has 

 narrowly escaped from the Coracomorphous territory ; whilst the Bell-bird, being of 

 a lower type than the Old-World Crows, is a nearer relation to the Goatsuckers than 

 to the more passerine " Fissirostres." Even that for which this bird is famous, its 

 voice, appears to me to be no mere caw of a true and proper Crow, but something akin 

 to the mysterious sounds uttered by the Goatsuckers of the New World. 



In concluding this instalment of my observations on the " ^githognathae," I cannot 

 help remarking that the subject seems to me to be worthy of great extension. 



As for the birds of South America, I shall be grateful to those naturalists who will 

 in any way assist me in throwing light upon the various groups of the Coracomorphee 

 of that region, or, indeed, of the other natural divisions of the Class ; for from that 

 land of enchantment we have already the Palamedea, the Cariama, the Sun-Bittern, 

 and the Trumpeter (Psophia), and numberless other types well worthy of careful study. 

 My belief, being fairly expressed, is this, namely that there (in South America) we 

 have representatives of the lost Miocene birds of our own geographical area. 



Additional Eemarks on the General Moepholoqt of the Palate and Mandible. 



I would beg of the reader to believe that the limited region here taken for compa- 

 rison is not conterminous with the ground I have been digging. 



This is not true of birds, as such, with regard to their structure throughout, nor of 

 birds as a " topmost fruitful bough " of the Vertebrate life-tree. 



Even the twigs of this bough have to be broken one by one, and not after they have 

 been faggoted. This dark forest (Vertebrate morphology) may have the light let in 

 upon it at some one spot by a laboured monograph of one type ; or a fine line of light 

 may be made to stream through it by the thorough working-out of one part or tract of 

 the organization, the clearing being merely suflBcient for the treading of the feet and 

 for the peering of the eyes. 



The utmost degree of modification of the facial parts that has been attained by a 

 mere fish (a branchiate Vertebrate) has been shown in my essay on the skuU of the 

 Salmon (Phil. Trans. 1873); but a new stand-point has to be taken with regard to the 

 air-breathers, most of which have their faces modified largely in relation to the function 



VOL. IX. — PAET V. December, 1875. 3 a 



