140 STRUCTURE AND CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS 



gnathism that ' it does not f adge so well as any other one of 

 the palatal types of structure with recognised groups of 

 birds based on other considerations.' This might be really 

 said of saurognathism also ; for the woodpeckers are not so 

 far removed from other picarian birds as the structure of 



Fig. 77. — Skull or Bhea. Venibal 

 View. (Attbb Huxley). 



Pmx, premaxillse ; M:vp, maxillo-palatine ; iJ, 

 fdstruln; Vo, yomer^ Pt^ palatine; Pe, 

 pterygoid ; *, basipterjgoid process. 



Fig. 78. — Skull of Dacelo (aftee. 

 Huxley), ,, 



id, laorymal. Other letters as in previous . 

 figure. 



their skull would lead us to believe. Neither are any of the 

 silbdivisions, except that of the dromseognathse, really satis- 

 factory from the classificatory point of view. Their in^ 

 efficiency, however, is rendered harmless by the fact that 



