OF THE PALATE OF THE NEOGNATHE. 349 
and pterygoid must be quite other than those which obtain in 
the Paleognathe. A comparison of adult skulls will show 
that this is the case: that the palate in the two forms is quite 
different in this respect, the vomer in the Neognathous palate 
being supported by the palatines. 
But the skull of the young bird throws quite a different light 
upon the nature of the relations between pterygoid, vomer, and 
palatine. Care must be taken, however, to select favourable 
types for study, specialization having, in the skulls of many 
“forms, obliterated more or less completely the evidence for the 
facts which follow. 
If the nestling skull, preferably of some Schizognathous form, 
such as of the Lari, Charadrii, Otide, Sphenisci, or Colymbi, be 
examined, the pterygoid will be found to be continued forward 
into a sharp point, which either slightly overlaps or just touches 
the bifid end of the azygos vomer. That is to say, the right and 
left ptery goids are connected with the right and left limbs of an 
originally paired vomer—as in the Paleognathe. ‘The palatines, 
which, as we have already remarked, have moved inwards to meet 
one another in the middle line, underlie the distal ends of these 
pointed pterygoids. Immediately behind the palatines the 
pterygoids segment, the segmentation at first resembling a 
fracture, but later this fracture becomes transformed into a true 
joint. By this time the terminal ends of the segmented ptery- 
goids have become perfectly ossified, and simultaneously have 
begun to effect a union with the underlying palatines, the dis- 
tinction between pterygoid and palatine being marked by a fine 
suture. Eventually all trace of the suture disappears, and with 
it the evidence of the pterygo-vomerine connection. The exist- 
ence of the distal end of this segmented pterygoid is entirely 
obliterated, so that there is nothing to show that this joint is not 
a true articulation between two distinct bones—pterygoid and 
palatine. In other words, there is no indication of the fact that 
this joint is formed by segmentation of the pterygoid, and the 
fusion of its segmented portion with the palatine to form a 
palato-pterygoid articulation. In some skulls the palatine ex- 
tends backwards below the segmented portion of the pterygoid 
to join with it in forming the articulation (Pl. 32. fig. 2). This 
segmented portion of the pterygoid I have elsewhere called the 
hemipterygoid; it is the mesopterygoid of W. K. Parker. 
