18 



PROF. D AECT "W. THOMPSON ON THE 



[Jan. 17, 



is continuous and not divided into two. The pterygoid condyle is 

 well-marked, and more distinctly sejDarate than usual from the 

 long mandibular condyle. The chief peculiarity in the boue is in 

 the region of the quadrato-jugal cup, which is more than usually 

 elevated from the flat surface of the bone, the tubercular mass on 

 which it stands being produced above into a sharp ridge, and being 

 directed outwards or even a little backwards instead of forwards, 

 as is commonly the case. The whole under surface of this pro- 

 tuberance, together with the outer face of the body of the bone 

 down to the condyle, plays on a corresponding articular surface on 

 the inner wall and edge of the mandible. In one of my specimens 

 of Nestor the jugal sends up a short but distinct rudiment of an 

 " ascending ramus." 



There are many other points of more or less importance, but 

 many of which I must pass over, to be noted in the skull of 

 Nestor. The nasal apertures are oval and very large, and are 

 hollowed out in front into a broad shallow depression. On the base 

 of the cranium the ridges which run their divergent course from 

 below the median Eustachian orifice to the paroccipital process 

 are very high, whereas in Psittams they are feeble, and the well- 

 marked surface or area external to them is much more flat and 

 approximately horizontal in the latter bird. The angle of the 

 mandible is pointed and very elongate, and the foramen, or rather 

 fontanelle, in the middle of the mandibular ramus is oval and very 

 large. 



Family Stringopidje. 



The skull of Strhujops (figs. 8, 9) is very remarkable, only less so 

 on the whole, and more so in some respects, than that of Nestor. 



rig. s. 



s m. 



Stringops habroptilus. 

 (Letters as in previous figures.) 



The orbit is complete (in the adult) by union of the prefrontal 

 with tlie postfrontal ; in other words, the orbit of /Striiigo23s is 

 unlike that of any other Old- World Parrot, and resembles that of 



