298 PROFESSOR W. K. PARKER ON THE 



which is a huge spongy ear of bone, never ossifies at its free infero-external angle,, 

 but leaves a semi-oval tract of cartilage, a soft " pars uncinata." In the Swift the 

 whole is completely ossified ; and here we meet with a curious correspondence with 

 the Passerines of Australia and Celebes {Pacycephala and Hyloterpe, Part I. pi. Ixi. 

 fig. 7, 0. u, and pi. Iviii. figs. 3 & 4, o. ?«). In the Swift, as in those birds, the " os unci- 

 natum " (fig. 3, o. u) is a well-marked large lower lobe of the swollen pars plana ; this 

 part is like a bagpipe, and the short curved neck is turned inwards. These details, if 

 they prove any thing, show how sharp is the angle intervening between the Hirundine 

 branches of the Passerine stock and this distinct " leader," the Cypseline branch. Could 

 we go lower down, and see the common trunk, we should most likely find Cypselus 

 growing out only one "internode" lower than Hirundo. The latter form runs through 

 all the metamorphosis, and attains to all the excellencies of the most perfect of the 

 "winged fowl." The Swift outdoes its Passerine relations in some, and stops far short 

 of them in other, characters. Like the Bell-bird (Chasmorhynchus, Part I. pi. Ixii. figs. 

 5-8), the Swift is formed, as it were, by a commingling of Passerine and Caprimulgine 

 characters ; but in it the latter preponderate sufficiently to exclude it from the territory 

 of the Coracomorphae. 



In the next group, the Nectariniidse, the members resemble the Humming-birds, 

 much as the Swallows resemble the Swifts. But these Old-world forms are not near 

 relatives of those American forms ; they are rather to be regarded as isomorphs than 

 allies. The Swifts contain much of the Passerine nature, and come near the Swallows ; 

 Humming-birds are a greater distance from the Passerines ; and the Nectariniidse are 

 but little modified from the " norma " of the ordinary Warblers. 



Example 68. Skull o( NectarojiMl a grayi. Family Nectariniidse. Group Oscines. 



Habitat. Celebes. 



In this type we have the smallest, as in the Raven we have the largest, of the highest 

 or typical Coracomorphse ; in both there is the perfect syrinx, albeit in the latter it is 

 too large an instrument for the production of " sweet sounds." Notwithstanding the 

 " isomorphism " of these birds, the Nectariniidse, with the Humming-birds, they are 

 very wide apart in their structure. In the skull, as in the rest of their organization 

 (compare Plate LIII. with the figures of the skull oiPatagona gigas. Trans. Linn. Soc. 

 ser. 2, Zool. vol. i. pi. 22), they also conform far less to the structure of the Passerine 

 Meliphagidse (Plate XLVII. figs. 1-4) than might have been supposed. The base of 

 the cranium (Plate LIII. fig. 1, b.t, oc.c) is quite similar to that of a Sylvia. 



The pterygoids {pg) are gently arcuate, and are flattened from above downwards ; they 

 interdigitate with the postpalatine laminae and the mesopterygoid plates in front ; and 



