9 



the supraorbital process, just about half-way from end of rostrum to 

 occiput, and opposite the apes of the mandibular coronoid, when the 

 jaw is closed. It is a gradual pinchiug-together of the sides of the 

 cranium for some distance, rather than an abrupt constriction at a 

 particular point. It is sometimes nnsymmetrical, one side being more 

 emarginate than the other ; is sometimes scarcely narrower than the 

 interorbital space, sometimes about three-fourths as much. Back of this 

 point, the skull widens rapidly to the hinder root of the zygoma and 

 mastoid ; the latter being the broadest point of the skull proper, sepa- 

 rated from the former by an emargination, in which lies the opening of 

 the meatus auditorius not visible from above. From each mastoid, the 

 skull narrows in an approximately straight line backward and upward 

 for a distance, and then ends with a straight-across contour, more or 

 less emarginate on the median line. This whole iiosterior boundary, 

 representing the lambdoidal crest, is extremely variable, not only accord- 

 ing to age, but fortuitously. In some skulls — those with the broadest 

 back part and most flaring occipital crest — there is a deep emargination 

 in the middle line of the skull, boldly salient angles on either side of 

 this, and a concave outline thence to the mastoid. This occipital flange 

 hides all the parts beneath it. For the rest, the top of the skull shows 

 a sagittal crest, (only in very young skulls a raised tablet,) well marked 

 in all but young examples, forking anteriorly (at or a little in advance 

 of the point of greatest constriction) to send a curved leg outward to 

 either supraorbital process. Aside from this crest and the occipital 

 one, the general cranial surface is vaulted. The zygomatic arches, 

 viewed above, show the point of widest divergence near their posterior 

 roots, whence they gradually and regularly converge forward with 

 slight curve. 



Viewed in profile, the skull shows its highest point at the interorbital 

 space, whence it slopes gradually with a general slight convexity to the 

 muzzle and occipital protuberence. This highest point is generally a 

 little, sometimes decidedly, in advance of the middle of the skull. The 

 frontal profile may acquire a slight concavity, and the opposite one may 

 be slightly sinuous, owing to irregularity of the sagittal crest. The 

 muzzle is cut squarely off, with an obliquity of perhaps 30 degrees from 

 the perpendicular. The zygoma shows but a slight upward arch, and 

 no beveling or si^ecial curve to define the portion of the orbit which 

 it represents. It is laminar, narrowing midway, stoutest near i^oste- 

 rior root. The anteorbital foramen* is a short perforation of a thin 

 upper plate of its anterior root ', behind, the glenoid fossa iDresents 

 rather forward than downward. The prominent orifice of the meatus 

 presents laterally between the root of the zygoma and the mastoid, 

 which latter is a protuberant but blunt process immediately behind the 

 meatus. Behind this, there is an emargination, terminated by the prom- 

 inent downward-projecting paroccipital ', back of this, the semicircular 

 outline, foreshortened, of the occipital condyle appears. 



The back of the skull is a subtriaugular face, flat and perpendicular 

 in general superficies, bounded above by the overhanging sagittal crest ; 

 either lateral corner being the i)rominent paroccipital, between which 

 appear the faces of the oblique condyles, the upper border of the fora- 

 men being transverse with a slight curve. 



The skull from below shows a broad, flat, palatal surface for about 

 two-fifths of its total length. The palate ends about opposite, or a little 



*As a curious but not very infrequent anomaly, this foramen is sometimes divided into 

 several separate canals, through which branches of the facial nerve pass out apart from each 

 other. I have observed the same thing in Conepaius, 



