284 PEOFESSOE W. K. PAEKEE ON THE 



As in Suthora, the inferior turbinals appear to be but little ossified ; and the alee nasi 

 are in both cases soft. The ecto-ethmoid projects moderately from the frontal edge 

 (fig. 6, e.eth) ; and the pars plana [p. p) is a large spongy wall, greatly emarginate in a 

 lounded manner externally ; above, it has a wide common opening for the two nerve- 

 trunks, as in South-American Passerines generally, and as in Suthora, where, however, 

 the passage is relatively much smaller; and it terminates below by a rounded foot. 

 There is no os uncinatum, and no lacrymal. 



In all this detail, except in the deficient separation of the bones to form the cranio- 

 facial hinge, there is scarcely any difference of consequence between the two skulls. It 

 would be too much, perhaps, to say that they might belong to species of the same 

 genus ; but they are certainly representative genera, the small bird £rova. Eastern Asia 

 being, as one might expect, more specialized than that from Eastern America. Then, 

 in the north the Titmice are typical forms, the culminating type of the group. 



Example 59. Skull of Nuthatch (Sitta europwa). Family Paridee. 

 Group Tracheophoneei. 

 Habitat. Great Britain. 



The head of this bird is of the same length as the last ; but in Cyclorhis the beak is 

 shorter, and the cranium both longer and also much wider than in Sitta europoea, and 

 appears large enough for one of the smaller Thrushes, the body being no larger than 

 that of the Nuthatch. 



In this latter bird the head is much like that of Pans ; but its narrower cranium 

 and longer rostrum, both being strong, remind the observer of the skull of one of the 

 lesser Woodpeckers. So far as the skull of Sitta differs from that of an ordinary soft- 

 billed songster, so much nearer does it come to a typical Tit. The pterygoids (Plate LI. 

 fig. 7, ])g, e.pig) are strong straight bones, with an unusually sharp and long epipterygoid 

 process, very sharply bent forwards. The spatulate fore end of the bone is quite normal, 

 and shows no additional mesopterygoid as in Pans ater. The postpalatine keels are 

 moderately large and are emarginate in their hinder edge ; the isthmus is broad, and 

 runs into two nearly equal laminae, as in Parus and Suthora {]}t.j)a, i.jxt, e.pa). The 

 transpalatine angle is less thrown backwards than in its congeners, and it is roughly 

 dentate behind. The long praepalatine bar (pr.pa) is Parine, being a strong and rather 

 wide sinuous plank ; yet it falls oS from the Tits as much as that of Cyclorhis by run- 

 ning insensibly into the rostrum. This latter part also has no more hinge above, nor are 

 the maxillaries {mx) more hinged on the sides, than in that type. As in Cyclorhis and 

 Suthora, the distinctness of the palatal portion of the prsemaxillary from the dentary is 

 quite lost {p.px, d.px). So also, as in Cyclorhis, the median line of the rostrum is 



' I give this on the authority of Maogillivray (Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 49). He says that the " inferior 

 laryngeal muscles form a small knob, and apparently single." 



