20 PEOF. d'arcy w. THOMPSON ois^ THE [Jan. 17, 



anterior process much larger and blunter, the vvhole body of the 

 bone more expanded, and the glenoid surface more elongate and 

 less curved. The pterygoid condyle is independent, and set about 

 halfway between the main condyle and the base of the anterior 

 process. The quadrato-jugal cup looks nearly forwards, and is 

 set on a powerful ridge of bone that forms a sharp free edge as 

 we look at it from the hinder or outer sides. Immediately below 

 the quadrato-jugal cup, on the vnaderside of the prominent ridge, 

 is an articular facet which plays ou a corresponding surface on the 

 edge of the mandible. The inner head of the quadrate bone is 

 comparatively large and imperfectly separated from the outer one. 

 The descending processes on the hinder border of the maxillae are 

 large. The usual mandibular fenestra is obsolete, but a small one 

 is present (represented in a good many other forms by a small 

 foramen) apparently between the articular and splenial elements. 

 I have not seen a complete hyoid, and can only say that the para- 

 hyals are uncommonly large and point upwards. 



The skull of Stringops represented in fig. 9 is that of a young 

 or half-grown individual, in which the orbit is still incomplete. 

 The circumstance is natural enough, but it may serve to remind 

 us that the coxupleteness or incompleteness of the orbit is not, 

 after all, a very deep-seated morphological difference ; it is merely 

 a case of greater or less extension of ossification in a ligamentous 

 connection that is already there. 



Family Loeiid^. 



Dr. Mivart has lately given us a copious description of the 

 skeleton of Lorius flavopalliatus. My account shall deal only with 

 the points that seem to me of chief importance. I have studied 

 four forms, Eos riciniata, Lorius domicella (fig. 11), Trichoglossus 

 ornaias, and Glossojpsittacus, sp. ; these ai'e all so similar in iheir 

 main features that their descriptions may be incorporated 

 together. 



rig. 11. 



Lorius domicella (slightly enlarged). 



The postfrontal process is in all of them small, largest in Eos, 

 and least in Lorius. It is in the form of a neax'ly vertical ridge 



