1885.] TROCHILID.E, CAPRI MULGID.*;, AND CYPSELID.E. 



895 



Thus we see that the American genus ChordedUes approaches 

 Nyctihiu.i in this particular. 



Returning to the basal view, again, of the former bird (fig. 4, 

 Plate LIX.), we find that the palatines are very broad, flat, and 

 smooth, lying mostly in the horizontal plane. Their postero- 

 external angles are rounded, while tlieir ascending processes are 

 just sufficiently pronounced to afford a low crest beiiind to unite with 

 the vomer. Anteriorly, their narrow and ribbon-like extremities can 

 be traced to the apex of the superior mandible (fig. 4). 



The ptcrijyoids are much flattened from above downwards, 

 while their anterior ends are somewhat dilated. Beneath tliis 

 latter portion we find each articulating with the basisphenoidal facet. 

 Quite an interval separates the points where they articulate with 

 the palatines, and the joints are very close ones, the palatines 

 themselves being anchylosed together at their heads. 



The case is diff'erent in Nuttall's Whippoorwill, where an 

 appreciable interval separates the palatine heads, and these really 

 articulate with the rostrum, the vomer being found immediately 

 beyond this minute point of separation of the palatines. In this 

 bird, too, these last-named bones are not nearly so much spread out 

 as they are in the Night-hawks, and their postero-external angles are 

 quite pointed. 



Jn speaking of the skull of Hteatornis, the lamented Garrod says, 



a Fig. C. h 



Skull of Steatornis. 

 a, base ; b, superior surface. 



" In the skulls the lacrymal bones are not developed as they are 

 in the StrigidiB and Caprimulgidae. The palate is strongly 



58* 



