264 STRUCT!] KE AjS'D CLASSIFICATION OF BIEDS 



The humerus of parrots is peculiar, and, as Garrod ' has 

 pointed out, there are features of resemblance to the Columbse 

 and to the Alcidae. This peculiarity will be found described 

 and figured in the chapter dealing with the Columbse. The 

 skull is very uniform in its structure throughout the group. 

 It is desmognathous, holorhinal, and without basipterygoid 

 processes. 



The front part of the face (nasals, maxilla, and premaxillse) 

 articulates by a transverse joint with the frontals, which is 

 movable. The mobility of the anterior part of the face is 

 aided by the movable articulation to it of the palatines and 

 the jugals. The palatines have a peculiar form ; for the 

 most part they are laterally flattened plates of great depth 

 and considerable extent. The quadrate of parrots too is 

 peculiar in the great length of the neck, which bears the 

 squamosal articulation. In many parrots the lacrymal bone 

 joins the forward process of the squamosal, thus completely 

 encircling the orbit with bone. 



The hyoid has been extensively studied by Mivaet ; * in 



' On Ul the median part of the hcemapophysis has vanished, leaving only 

 the lateral. 



^ On this vertebra is a double hsemapophysis, forming a canal. 



^ See also for osteology of parrots Blanohard, ' Ues CaractSres Ost6ologic[ues 

 •chez les Oiseaux de la Famille des Psittaoides,' Compt. Bend, xliii. p. 1097, 

 and xlix. p. 518 ; Milne-Edwaeds, ' Observations sur les Caraot^res Ost6olo- 

 giqnes,' &c., Ann. Sci. Nat. (6), vi. p. 91 ; L. von Lokenz, ' tjber die Skeleto 

 von Stringops habroptilus u. Nestor notabilis' 8.B. k. Ak. Wien, Ixxxiv. 1882, 

 p. 624. 



* ' On the Hyoid Bone of certain Parrots,' P. Z. S. 1895, p. 102. 



