STUDIES OF THE MACROCHI EES. 
385 
very distinct kinds of Goatsuckers, and this, as we now know, is 
sustained by other parts of the structure of the birds in question. 
In this connection, however, I may add that I have recently 
examined a nearly adult specimen of Chordeiles virginianus, 
kindly procured for me by Dr. W. S. Strode of Bernadotte, 
Illinois. In this I find that the maxillo-palatines do not meet in 
the median line, but are pressed close against the sides of the 
vomer on each side. This latter bone is bifurcated behind, and 
into the fork the antero-median point of the palatines is wedged. 
The vomer comes well forward, anteriorly, where it is bluntly 
pointed and thicker than it is behind. It is only in the immature 
bird that these true relations can be studied, for in all species of 
this genus, as they attain to maturity, these several bones indis- 
tinguishably fuse, and present the appearance shown in the basal 
view of the skull of Chordeiles acutipennis var. texensis (P. Z . S. 
1885, pi. lix. fig. 4), where, however, the vomer is not quite 
correctly indicated, for the lines designated by Vo go to the 
mesial fused portion of the palatines, and not to the vomer, 
which in that skull is co-ossified with the maxillo-palatines, and 
only its median line and anterior apex are seen. 
Anatomical Notes upon the Nestling Trochilus, 
a day or two old. 
First, I remove the delicate skin from the specimen’s head, 
and note that the ends of the hyoidean apparatus have not 
proceeded beyond the posterior area of the parietal region, and 
that, although the tongue is short, still it shows well the embryonic 
condition of the two glosso-hyoidean rods which become so long 
in the adult Humming-bird. 
The nasal hones lap rather high up on the frontal region, and 
mesially meet the backward-extending limb of the premaxillary 
for their entire borders, thus leaving no vacuity in this locality, 
as is to be seen in the postero-culmenar space of the superior 
aspect of the upper mandible in an adult Qypselus. 
In size, the lacrymal bones are exceeding small, and I am in- 
clined to think that were we able to define their sutural bounda- 
ries in the skull of the adult, we should find that they contribute 
but a meagre share to the wide expanse of bone in the pars plana 
of the mature Trochilus. 
At the base of the skull we note that the tiny palatines, the 
jugals, quadrato-jugals, and even pterygoids are now considerably 
ossified ; and that the latter elements are separated at their 
