﻿262 SHUFELDT. 



be concealed from view. This can only be proved by an examination 

 of the nestling, before inter ossification of the bones involved has com- 

 menced. In fact, at this stage of development, in any of the species 

 above mentioned, we may possibty discover that the ossicle I have con- 

 sidered to be the lacrymal is nothing more than an ossification in the 

 Tipper angle of the triangular membrane stretched over the opening exist- 

 ing in the dried sknll, between the pars plana, nasal, and maxillary, and 

 that the true lacrymal in the adult is indistinguishably fused with the 

 upper part of the pars plana. Such a discovery would not surprise me, 

 but until such is shown to be the case, I must believe the above description 

 to be the correct one. 



As in Oriolus and in the majority of the other species herein men- 

 tioned, the ethmoidal wing or pars plana in Sarcops in remarkably well 

 developed. Apart from the two small foraminal perforations in it, it con- 

 stitutes a complete, and rather thick, bony wall between the orbit and the 

 rhinal cavity beyond it, being concave posteriorly and convex for its 

 anterior surface, with a decided rounded notch at the middle of its 

 external border — as in Oriolus, Lamprocorax, and others. This osseous 

 partition is less complete in Stumella and some of the crows. Sarcops 

 possesses a capacious, hemispherical orbit, with quite a large vacuity in 

 the interorbital septum, with the openings into the brain cavity much 

 enlarged above, though the foramen rotundum remains distinct, though 

 not as decidedly so as in Cyanocephalus and among the American jays. 



As in Oriolus chinensis, the postorbital processes at the lateral aspect 

 of the cranium are fairly well developed and bluntly pointed, the valley 

 between them being narrow, rather deep and, extending backward as the 

 crotophyte fossa, it is confined entirely to the lateral aspect of the skull. 

 The conformation here agrees with the orioles rather than with the 

 starlings and their near allies {Stumella, etc.). The "infraorbital bar," 

 composed of the usual bones, is extremely slender, hardly curved at all, 

 and from quadrate to ethmoid, nearly of uniform size. 



At the base of the skull all the bones and their articulations and 

 relationships present the usual passerine characters, departing therefrom 

 only in certain specific variations. Antero-posteriorly, the basitemporal 

 region is short, and the sphenoidal rostrum sharply keeled beneath. The 

 condyle is quite minute, while the subcircular foramen magnum is com- 

 paratively large. Nothing of special importance characterizes either the 

 quadrates or the pterygoids. The body of a palatine is notabhy short 

 antero-posteriorly, with the process at its postero-external angle conspic- 

 uous, though blunt, as in most oriojes. Its prepalatine portion is very 

 slender and widely separated from the fellow of the opposite side. In 

 the intervening space is seen the large keeled and bifurcated vomer, which 

 unites with the palatines posteriorly. A maxillo-palatine is an extremely 

 delicate structure, with a slight!}' clubbed free posterior extremity. On 

 either side, this very fragile little element curves backward in the space 



