300 PEOFESSOE "W. K. PAEKEE ON THE 



Passerines ; and the passage for the orbito-nasal nerve is some distance from that for 

 the olfactory, as in Anthrejptes (Plate LIII. fig. 6, i, 5). 



Example 69. Skull of Anthreptes malaccensis. Family Nectariniidae. 



Group seines. 



Habitat. Celebes. 



This bird is more Sylviine, and is very useful to bridge over the space between Necta- 

 rophila and Sylvia ; it has, however, characters of its own, and also shows a likeness 

 to the Muscicapidae (see Lalage, Part I. pi. Ixii. fig. 1, and Muscicapa, Plate LII. 

 fig. 9). The whole skull, although very delicate, is much less so than in the last, and 

 approaches that of the Warblers in general and the Flycatchers in particular. The free 

 anterior margin of the basitemporal (Plate LIll. figs. 3, 4, b.t) is tridentate ; but, what 

 is of more importance, the basipterygoids break out again as small spines on the base 

 of the parasphenoid (pa.s, b-pg). 



The pterygoids (pg) are shortish, rather stout, and carmate on the bowed outer mar- 

 gin; they are confluent by their laminar anterior "foot" with the palatine and meso- 

 pterygoid (jit.pa, ins.pg). The latter parts agree with the same in Nectaropliila, but are 

 stouter ; and the whole interpalatine angle is bevelled off, showing the ethmo-palatine 

 shell, to which the vomerine crus, which is short, is articulated. The transverse isthmus 

 of the palatine is wider than in the last instance, and the transpalatine {t.pa) is inter- 

 mediate between that oi Nectaropliila and Lalage ; the praepalatine bar {pr.pa) is thicker 

 than in the last instance, and more outbowed. Between these bars there is a triangular 

 tongue of bone proceeding from the prsemaxillary, the palatal processes of which are 

 not distinct from the prsepalatines. 



The maxillary and maxillo-palatine processes {mx, mx.p) are like those of Nectaro- 

 pliila ; and so also is the vomer, save that it has shorter crura both behind and in front, 

 these latter being broader also. Here also things are reversed ; for the vomerine crura 

 are not ankylosed to the ethmo-palatal coil, whilst the pterygoids are to the postpalatal 

 plate. The small, soft, and not deep septum nasi and the turbinals agree with the last ; 

 so also does the swollen ecto-ethmoidal mass on the whole ; but in Anthreptes there is 

 a small conical lacrymal, sticking like a limpet to part of the massive ecto-ethmoid 

 (fig. 6, I, e.eth). 



Below, on the foot-like base of the pars plana, there is an elegant oval mass of bone 

 semidistinct from its root ; this is the " os uncinatum " (fig. 6, p. p, 0. u). The septum 

 of the orbits is largely membranous ; the perpendicular ethmoid {p. e) sends a frail bar 

 back into the praesphenoid, which has no wings and only a small descending process ; in 

 this these two Nectariniidae agree closely. 



The rest of the skull in both these types is but little diflferent from that of any ordi- 

 nary soft-billed songster ; to know one is to know all ; and 1 have carefully chosen 

 the parts for description in which the specialization is most marked. 



