[ 251 ] 



VII. On the Skull of the yEgithognathous Birds. — Part II. 

 By W. K. Paeker, F.'b.S., F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. 



Eeceived January 1st, 1876. Eead February 15th, 1876'. 



[Plates XLVI.-LIV.] 



In this second di^dsion of my account of that variety of the bird's skull which Pro- 

 fessor Huxley terms " ^githognathous," I give a Table of the types examined, illus- 

 trated, and described, both in this and in the first part, which appeared in the ' Trans- 

 actions ' of the Society in 1875 (vol. ix. pis. liv.-lxii., pp. 289-352). 



Any thing but exhaustive, yet I flatter myself that both the zoologist and the anato- 

 mical student will find a suflacient variety of types of palate worked out to enable them 

 to form a very tolerable idea of the most important modifications to be seen in so multi- 

 tudinous and yet so greatly diversified a group of the Carinate Birds. 



It will be seen how nearly the two terms given to these birds by the author just 

 referred to are applicable to the same ornithic territory ; his " Coracomorphae," are all 

 ^githognathous, — and how the latter territory just overlaps the true Corvo-passerine 

 region. 



For, below, the simple Hemipods hegin the ^githognathous palate ; and, above, it 

 hinges on to the Swifts, beyond the Swallows, the former interdigitating with the Goat- 

 sucker and Humming-birds. Probably the Cypselidse have as much right to be 

 called Coracomorphae as some of the Southern Tracheophonse, which are considered 

 to be undoubted members of the great Passerine group. 



In the annexed Table the Hemipods and the Swifts are called " Tracheophonae ;" for 

 the term is applicable to aU birds not possessed of the complex syrinx of the Songsters 

 and Crows. It is a term difiicult of application within the Passerine group ; for many 

 of those which possess the instrument have no knowledge of its use, and have merely 

 harsh voices. In the Nuthatch [Sitta europma) Macgillivray (Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 49) 

 found " the inferior laryngeal muscles forming a small knob, and apparently single." In 

 the Australian Sittella I could discover no breaking-up of the contractor muscles of the 

 trachea into separate bundles on the syrinx. I have therefore put both these genera 

 among the Tracheophonae. 



I do not see how such forms as Gymnorhina, Cracticus, Coronica, and Vanga can be 

 placed with the Old-world Coracomorphae ; I have shown in my former paper (pi. ix. 



■ Since the sending-in of this paper several valuable contributions to the anatomy of the PaBserine Birds, by 

 Prof. Garrod, have appeared in the ' Proceedings ' of the Society. See P. Z. S. 1876, pp. 506-519 ; 1877, 

 pp. 447-452, and pp. 523-526. In the latter volume (pp. 413-418) there is an important paper, most 

 welcome to me, on Aitagis. 



VOL. X. — PAET VL No. 1. — June 1st, 1878. 2n 



