﻿OSTEOLOGY OF SARCOPS CALYUS. 261 



and departs from the orioles, and such a species, too, as the huia bird 

 (Heteralocha gouldi) of Australia — a form which Garrod found to be 

 more nearly related to the Stumidce than to the Corvidce.* 



Passing to the lateral aspect of the skull, it is to be noted that Sarcops 

 possesses the large, elliptical narial aperture found in the Corvidce, 

 the orioles, Stumella, Lamprocorax, the American marsh blackbirds, and 

 related genera and species. There is no osseous narial septum present, 

 and in the material at hand I find such a bony partition developed only 

 in Oriolus cMnensis and Corvus, — to a slight degree, superiorly in the 

 former, and anteriorly in the latter, as in the raven (Corvus corax 

 sinuatus) . 5 



In form, the superior mandible of Sarcops is rather broad at its base; 

 the culmen rounded, tomia cultrate; the whole being gently decurved 

 throughout and gradually carried to an acute apex anteriorly. (See 

 PL I.) 



More closely approaching the orioles in its general contour, it lacks 

 entirely that peculiar median elevation of the crdmen, between the nasals, 

 so prominent in the skull of Stumella, and generally in Xantliocephalus, 

 Agelaius and their nearest relatives, 6 as well as in the several species of 

 Euphagus, Quiscalus, Megaquiscalus, and somes finches most nearly 

 related to them. The bone which I described as the lacrymal in Stur- 

 nella is also present in Sarcops, where it is represented by a small, trian- 

 gular ossicle wedged in between the corresponding nasal and the pars 

 plana, coming barely in contact with the frontal. Its descending spiral 

 process may or may not ossify, but when it does, it supports, or gives 

 attachment to, the thin membrane which anteriorly is attached to the 

 maxillary below, and the free posterior margin of the nasal, anteriorly. 

 Minute, insular ossifications may occur in this membrane, as I have 

 found to be the case in Sarcops melanonotus. Indeed, the bone I take 

 to be the lacrymal, in Oriolus cMnensis, is very small, and it occupies a 

 lower position between the pars plana and nasal, apparently not being 

 in contact with the frontal at all, although it may articulate with its 

 nasal process, beneath the overlapping nasal, and the relationship thus 



4 Garrod, A. H. : Notes on the anatomy of the huia bird (Heteralocha gouldi) 

 Proc. Zool. Soe. (1872), 643-647. Judging from the figures and description of the 

 skull of this species, as given us by Garrod, Sarcops and it are by no means 

 closely allied. 



5 Shufeldt, R. W. : The myology of the raven, p. 7, fig. 1. In some skulls of 

 the common American crow at hand it is entirely absent, as it is also in Pica. 



Shufeldt, R. W. : On the skeleton of the genus Stumella, with osteological 

 notes upon other North American Icteridw, and the Corvidw. Jour, of Anat. and 

 Phys. (1888), 22, n. s., 2, 311, PI. XV, fig. 1. The form of the superior osseous 

 mandible is far more like that which we find in Pica, it does not so much resem- 

 ble that in Stumella or the marsh blackbirds. In Oriolus cMnensis there is a 

 slight indication of this prominence of the culmen in the internasal region. 



