32 MR. W. P. PYCRAFT ON THE MORPHOLOGY 
continued upwards and forwards beneath the hemipterygoid for 
some distanee. All this seems to imply that this unsegmented 
pterygoid is really not a primitive but a secondary character— 
an approximation to the original type. 
The suggestion that the unsegmented pterygoid of the species 
described above is a secondary and not a primitive character, is 
confirmed by what obtains in Cyanops asiatica. Here the form 
of the pterygoid, its hemipterygoid plate, and its relations to 
the vomer, are precisely similar to what obtains in JZ. marshall- 
orum, but the hemipterygoid is cut off from the main shaft, 
and fuses by its distal end with the palatine. Except that the 
fusion of the hemipterygoid with the palatine is not so complete 
as usual, this is a perfectly normal Neognathine palate. 
There is one particular, however, in which the hemipterygoids 
of these two species differs from the normal type, and that is their 
relatively greater size and close approximation to the parasphe- 
noidal rostrum, which is held by them in close embrace. 
Another well-marked type of palatal modification is afforded 
by the Passeriformes. Foreshadowings of this occur in the Pici, 
and many modifications thereof occur amongst the Passeriformes. 
The evolution of these modifications I propose to deal with in a 
further contribution to this subject, wherein the morphology of 
the palate in the whole of the Coraciomorphe will be, as com- 
pletely as possible, set forth. 
In this Passerine type, which has perhaps reached the high- 
water mark of specialization in the Corvide, the hemipterygoid 
(P1. 32. fig. 6) is split off, not by transverse fracture, but by a very 
oblique segmentation extending from the ventral border of the 
distal end of the shaft forwards and upwards. ‘The vomer is in 
contact with the distal end of this reduced hemipterygoid. The 
main shaft of the pterygoid, immediately behind the hemiptery- 
goid, expands into a slipper-shaped plate, which is closely applied 
to the parasphenoidal rostrum on either side. The palatines run 
along beneath the hemipterygoid, but instead of terminating at 
the proximal end of this segment, run backwards to articulate 
with so much of the ventral border of the distal end of the shaft 
of the pterygoid as is applied to the parasphenoidal rostrum. 
From the ventral aspect of the skull the proximal ends of the 
palatines appear to ie in a groove hollowed out of the ventral 
border of the parasphenoidal pterygoid plate. 
