SKULL OF THE ^GITHOaNATHOUS BIRDS. 257 



into the long jugal style (j), to which it is ankylosed ; it is also completely con- 

 fluent with the prsemaxillary in front, rvinning in as a splint-like wedge. But over the 

 middle of the prsepalatine bar a process of the maxillary grows ; this is its maxillo- 

 palatine process. This outgrowth is unusually massive, short, and non-pedunculated for 

 a Passerine bird (compare fig. 1 with figs. 8, 9, mx.p). This maxillo-palatine is quite 

 unique: it is spongy, has a large, oval, inferior pneumatic opening, and sends out 

 postero-externally, behind its short neck, a sharp spur. On the whole, however, this 

 part comes very near to the like process in Pitta and Grallaria (Part I. plate Ivi.), and 

 is very similar to that of the African Ostrich (Ostrich skull, plate viii. fig. 2). Alto- 

 gether these parts speak of a generalized Southern bird, and yet, for one of its zoolo- 

 gical rank, considerably specialized. 



In this and other Southern types the palate owes much of its strength to the 

 maxillo-palatines, which are like flying buttresses inverted ; but in the stoutest of the 

 Finches {Coccothraustes, see Plate LI. figs. 1 & 2, mx.p) these parts are reduced to the 

 frailest and most delicate bony air-tubes, and the strength of the palate lies in the 

 palatines themselves and the ox-faced massive vomer. This bone (figs. 8 & 9, ?;) is large 

 and spongy : its " horns " have not distinct septo-maxillaries ; but these have probably 

 coalesced. The shoulders of the bone are broad, and in front are faceted obliquely, 

 where they glide on the maxillo-palatine facet ; the facets of the vomer are elevated, 

 like basipterygoids ; and there appears to be a small joint-cavity. In front the vomer 

 is emarginate by a rounded notch ; below subcarinate, and then fenestrate, and lastly 

 slit, the flat crura on each side running to coalesce with the ethmo-palatines. As in 

 the Southern types, Pipra, Thamnophilus, Sec, the osseous matter of the vomerine 

 horns stops short at the nasal wall, which is ossified independently and not by free 

 extension of bony matter from the vomer, as in the Old-world Finches. Lastly, the 

 whole nasal labyrinth is ossified, with the exception of the inferior turbinal ; the 

 septum (s. n) is but little alate in front; and the "recurrent cartilage" {rc.c.) is much 

 arrested. The alinasal turbinal is hidden below (figs. 8 & 9) by the nasal wall and floor 

 {n. w) ; but it is seen on the outside joining an oblong valve in the external nostril 

 (fig. 10, a. th, e. n). The whole alinasal wall {al.n) is thoroughly ossified, and is rela- 

 tively larger than in the Tanagers. There is a truly Corvine lacrymal as in Tanarjra 

 (figs. 2 & 10, I) ; but it is hammer-shaped, and the " head " looks forwards and down- 

 wards. As in the Grosbeak and Parrot, but not to the same extent, the pars plana 

 (p- ]i) runs into an elongated process, which is the " os uncinatum ; " it has either 

 coalesced with the pars plana or was from the beginning connate. As in the Gros- 

 beak and Pan-ot, the septum of the orbits (fig. 10, jj.e) is perfectly bony. A large 

 open space in the antero-internal part of the orbit admits both the olfactory and orbito- 

 nasal nerves (1, 5 a). In the Grosbeak the orbital bony ring is nearly as perfect as 

 in the lesser Psittacidse (e. g. Psephotus multicolor) ; it is much less so in Phytotoma. 

 Here, however, we encounter a character not expected in a Passerine ; for the upper 



