SKULL OP THE ^GITHOGNATHOUS BIEDS. 287 



the figure of the palate of Liothrix side by side with those of several soft-billed 

 Passerines. 



The breadth and arcuation of the rostrum (figs. 8 & 9) have converted this part into 

 a mask that hides its relationship to the soft-billed birds ; it is such as is seen in 

 Pi])ra (Cotingidae, see Part I. pi. Ivii. figs. 1-3). Yet this does not remove it far 

 from the rostnim of a Wagtail (Plate LII. fig. 8) ; nor is it a greater modification of 

 the fore face than we see in the Flycatcher {Muscicapa grisola). If the bill of that 

 bird were slightly more decurved, and somewhat stouter, the two would be much 

 alike ; but these birds are far apart, and are here mentioned together for illustration 

 merely. Compared with that oiParus ater the skull of Panurus is much more delicate ; 

 and in the palate all Parine stoutness is absent (compare figs. 1 & 8, Plate LI.). 



The pterygoids {j)g, e.pg) are very long and slender ; and the epipterygoid hook is a 

 fiat crest, not a rounded hook as in Parus. The fore end of the bone has its usual 

 spatulate form ; but tlie laminated part is very large, and the triangular mesopterygoid 

 segment, superadded to the palatine, is of medium size. The postpalatine keels 

 {pt. ixi) are normally passerine, being steep and having an almost vertical emarginate 

 posterior edge. The broad part of the palatines is very similar to what is found in Pra- 

 tincola, Muscicapa, and Liotlmx (Plate LII. figs. 9-11). The transpalatine angle (Plate 

 LI. fig. 8, tpa) is a small, stunted, and somewhat outturned spur ; this part is moderately 

 steep. The interpalatine spui-s are blunt, the ethmo-palatines sharp and triangular, 

 reaching further forwards {i.pa, e.pa). The preepalatine bar {pr.pa) is a long narrow 

 strap of bone, running into the rostrum by complete ankylosis ; it slowly broadens in 

 its fore half; and the right and left bars leave a large prsevomerine space, in which are 

 displayed the elegant coils of the olfactory vestibule. The inwedged maxillaries {mx, 

 d.px) run in between the praepalatine bar and the retral part of the prsemaxillaries quite 

 normally. 



The nasal, by its thick outer edge, hinges on to the skull (fig. 9, n, e.eth) ; but the 

 inner part of the lamina and the nasal processes of the prsemaxillaries are ankylosed by 

 their thin fibrous ends to the skull. The median process of the praemaxillaries is sup- 

 pressed ; the palatal processes are ankylosed to the palatines and to their own dentary 

 edge (d.2)x). The maxillo-palatines are, in stalk and blade, like those of the Paridse ; 

 but the latter part, although thick and pneumatic, is smaller (fig. 8, mx.p). 



The vomer [v) is like that of the Tits, in that its legs cling towards each other ; and 

 then the bone does not keep straight at its sides as in most soft-billed types : but this 

 convergence is also seen in the Swift (Ci/pselus) (Plate LII. fig. 1, v). The fore edge of 

 the bone is much more like that of an ordinary Passerine, having a thick low carina in 

 place of an emargination. Its shoulders are broad where the graft is upon the inturned 

 nasal wall (?. n. w) ; and although this part is, like the enclosed turbinal, calcified con- 

 siderably, there is no separate septo-maxillary ossicle ; nor is there in the Tits. The 

 nasal labyrinth is not Parine, but Sylviine, with special modifications of its own (see 



