SHUFELDT. ] OSTEOLOGY OF LANIUS. 721 
to furnish a more elaborate description of the skull when he comes to 
touch upon the Vireonide; a faithful outline of this arch is given, 
however, from a superior view in Fig. 101 of the plate. 
Before the young of this Shrike has left the nest the numerous elements 
of the lower jaw have become fused together, so that during maceration 
the two rami rarely separate at any other point except the symphysis 
between the dentary elements. In the old bird it is a stout and strong 
bone, with sharp-pointed extremity beyond, and deeply scooped-out 
articular ends posteriorly, with blunted processes behind, and up-turned 
ones looking towards each other, mesiad. Externally the “ sides of the 
jaw” are concave for their posterior two-thirds, and exhibit the usual 
elliptical foramen (Fig. 102); while the superior ramal borders are 
rounded and rise into slight prominences at the junction of the outer 
and middle thirds. As to the sense capsules, we find that the sclerotals 
are well developed and very accurately matched together; the usual 
ossicles of the organ of hearing likewise ossify. 
There are thirteen vertebre devoted to the cervical portion of the 
spine, and, although they make a faint attempt towards a raptorial ap- 
pearance, they are more oscine in their character than anything else, and 
are not noted for the prominence of any of their outstanding processes ; 
d‘sregarding the atlas, the first four bear neural spines, this feature not 
showing itself again until we find it in the last two, the thirteenth posess- 
ing it as well developed as any of the dorsals. The post- and prezyga- 
pophyses are markedly short, thus bringing all the segments quite near 
together, giving considerable stability to this division of the column. 
The parapophyses are very delicate where they are produced anteriorly 
at mid-neck, and quite inconspicuous above; the first four and the last 
six vertebre bear hypapophyses, they being three-pronged on the last 
two; this limits the carotid canal to the fifth, sixth, and seventh cervi- 
cals, unusually slight protection for this important arterial branch. The 
vertebral canal commences in the tenth—. e., in this segment it is com- 
pletely surrounded by bone, and continues its course through the axis; 
the last two or three vertebre are very broad from side to side, the ulti- 
mate one bearing a free pair of vertebral ribs that have in their turn 
distinct uncinate processes. 
The neural tube as found in this section of the spine commences and 
terminates broadly and transversely elliptical, merging into the sub- 
circular as it nears its mid-portion at the middle of the neck; it is of 
considerable caliber throughout. The dorsal division of the spine has 
allotted to it five vertebre, closely locked together, yet easily detached 
by ordinary maceration; their combined neural spines form one con- 
tinuous quadrate crest. These are fastened together above by the 
‘‘arrow-head” jointthat we havedescribedin other papers. There is very 
little difference in the lengths of the transverse processes, from first to 
last,so we do not find much change in the processes of the ribs they 
sustain, as to length of pedicles and tubercula. Short metapophysial 
_ridges are found above the transverse processes; they never seem to 
attain sufficient length to connect the vertebral segments, however. 
The neural canal commences transversely elliptical, to terminate, much 
diminished in caliber, in the subcircular form. In the first dorsal we 
find a thin quadrate lamina of bone, projecting downwards and forwards 
in the mesial plane, as a well-developed hypapophysis; the second sup- 
ports the merest apology for this process, and the remaining dorsals have 
none at all, though by compression of the centra a low ridge presents 
itself along their middles, which is only faintly perceptible in the last, 
There “ a free pair of ribs for each dorsal vertebra, and these are mov- 
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