292 PROFESSOR W. K. PAHKER ON THE 



of the Australian and Central- American soft-bills, show an evidently lower ornithic 

 condition of the face, retaining as they do evident conformity to that of the Ophidians 

 and the Lacertilians. 



There is very little appreciable difference between the skull of a Whinchat {Pratincola 

 rubetra) and this species ; that which is evident is the greater length and breadth of 

 the rostrum ; for here begin the " fissirostral " types, that run into the Swallow, and 

 pass over to the Swifts. The pterygoids have their epipterygoid processes a little 

 smaller than in Pratincola. In the young (Plate LII. fig. 9) the trauspalatine (^.jja) shows 

 more angularity ; but in the adult it is scarcely distinguishable from that of Fanurus 

 (Plate LI. fig. 8). 



Tho vomer of the adult is exactly like that of the Whinchat (fig. 11, v) ; but in the 

 fledgeling (fig. 9, v, s.inx) this bone consists of two perfectly distinct bars, which do not 

 yet meet under the parasphenoid, and which are themselves also double. The halves 

 of each lateral piece are joined at a right angle, each plate turning downwards. In 

 front, each half has its own head, which is flattened and thick; and the main part is 

 twisted on the head of the inner piece. Each head is grafted upon its own part of 

 the inturned lamina [i. al). These two halves, the inner of which is the vomer (v) and 

 the outer the septo-maxillary {s.mx) are not clearly distinct, save in front. Looking 

 from below, holes are seen in the deep fossa ; but the suture is far less evident than 

 in the adult Mniotilta and Bendroeca (Plate XLVIII.)^. The vomer, at the junction 

 of the outer and inner pieces, sends upwards a crest. 



But these long outer sickles of bone do not correspond to the whole of the Ophidian 

 or Lacertian septo-maxillary, the fore part of which is clearly represented in the young 

 Flycatcher by a triangle of bone (fig. 9, s.mx'), which is applied to the hinder face of 

 the alinasal wall [n. w) some little distance outside the outer vomerine sickle. The 

 large broad rostrum is confluent with the maxillaries and jugals. The maxillo- 

 palatines are bony pneumatic ladles, as in Pratincola. The ecto-ethmoid has two 

 distinct nerve-passages above it ; its lower lateral part, or pars plana, is very large 

 and spongy; its side is emarginate, and its foot rounded, without any distinct os 

 uncinatum. 



I find in the young a small lacrymal on the right side — a falcate spicule, attached 

 to the descending crus of the nasal; this bone is ever ready to crop up in the Passe- 

 rines, and doubtless often exists, but is soon ankylosed to the nasal, and then has its 

 outline blurred by absorption of its angles. 



' Wien bone is forming in the fibrous tissues of a bird's palate, it is not uncommon for a temporary suture 

 to appear, which corresponds to the persistent suture of some lower type. The osteoblasts, which at first spread 

 fairly through the tissue, become laid out in free morphological territories ; these, however, are generally soon 

 obliterated again. This state of things in birds is due to " the hot condition of their blood ; " their metamor- 

 phosis hastes to its end. In the figure, Plate LII. fig. 11, the maxiUo-palatine of one side has been dislocated, 

 and part of the palatine cut away. 



