260 PEOFESSOE W. K. PAEEEE ON THE 



the inner side of the base of the bony leaf a spur is given off ; this binds strongly on 

 the shoulder of the vomer (u) — a Southern character. The bony lamina is too thin 

 for an air-cell. As in Petroica (Part I. pi. Ix. figs. 9 <& 10, v), the vomer is evidently 

 composed of two larger, inner, and two smaller, outer, tongues of bone : the inner are 

 the proper vomers {v), the outer the septo-maxillaries {s.mx). As in the Struthionidae, 

 the vomerine crura are short ; they are ankylosed to the ethmo-palatines. The nasal 

 wall [n.w) sends inwards a thick spur of cartilage (i.a.l), on which each vomer and 

 septo-maxillar}' is grafted. The septum nasi (s. n) is unusually long, rather deep, and 

 is not alate. The alinasal wall is long ; and it, with its turbinal, and the inferior 

 turbinal, are all unossified — very unlike what we see in the Humming-bird (Trans. 

 Linn. Soc. ser. 2, Zoology, vol. i. p. 119). In the lower view the alinasal turbinal is only 

 slightly seen (figs. 1 & 2, «. tb) ; for the nasal labyrinth has the unusual bony floor formed 

 by the palatal plates of the prsemaxillaries. The ecto-ethmoid and its downward con- 

 tinuation, the pars plana (fig. 1, e.eth,j).])), together form a large spongy mass, on which 

 I fail to find either lacrymal or os uncinatum ; inside this mass, above, a large chink 

 forms a common foramen for the olfactory and orbito-nasal nei-ves. 



Above, the skull resembles that of a Humming-bird ; but its true character is soon 

 understood when carefuUy inspected. It is much further off from the Sylviidse than the 

 Nectariniidee are, as I shall soon show. 



Example 35. Skull of Ptilotis, sp. ? Family Meliphagidse. Section Oscines. 



Habitat. Australia. 



This is a stouter type, with a shorter beak ; and yet it diverges still more than the last 

 from the more accurate Sylviine form (as to its skuU) of the Nectariniidae. The hinges 

 of its face are still more modified ; for the pterygoids (fig. 3, j)g) are quite unique in 

 their divergence and their arcuate form ; they are quite flat as they approach the 

 palatines, being depressed ; they are conipj-essed behind ; so that they have a twisted 

 appearance. The antei"ior end is foot-shaped, and has lost a large triangle of bone — 

 the mesopterygoid, which has coalesced with the palatine. Behind, the epipterygoid 

 hook {e.pg) is well seen. 



But the palatines are at once the most remarkable and elegant seen by me in any 

 ornithic type, although the whole class is characterized by the consummate beauty of 

 its cranio-facial architecture ; and in that building, which looks as though it had been 

 wrought by the hands of fairies, the palatines are always the parts that strike the eye. 

 The solid part of the rostrum is short in Ptilotis, as compared with Acanthorhynchus 

 (figs. 1 & 3) ; and the bar formed by coalescence of the palatal process of the prsemaxillary 

 with the pi-sepalatine is very long, and reaches into the anterior third of the rostrum. 

 This long widish plank of bone is gently bowed outwards in the nasal region, and again 

 in its terminal, free, outer spui" — the transpalatine (fig. 3. p-px, pr.pa, t.pa) ; so that it 



