STEGANOPODES 417 



the palatine, the lacrymal itself reaching (or nearly so) the 

 jugal bar. The palate of Diomedea is remarkably like that of 

 i^reg-a to, which, unlike other Steganopodes (except P/iae tow), 

 is not far from being schizognathous, and represents, I am 

 disposed to think, the nearest intermediate form. The 

 grooves, starting from the nostrils and running towards the 

 end of the beak, are also found in the Tubinares (and in the 

 Herodiones, with which latter group the Steganopodes share 

 the very much reduced, and yet holorhinal, nostrils) . Another 

 fact which is perhaps of importance is the much-reduced 

 gizzard and the correspondingly enlarged proventriculus. 

 Less important likenesses are the double pectoral, the short 

 cohc csBca, which are occasionally reduced to one in the 

 Steganopodes ; these points ally the group to the Herodiones 

 as well as to the Tubinares. The very names Fregata and 

 Fregetta, Pelecanus and Pelecanoides are an expression of 

 these views. 



FiJEBEiNGER, however, and Gadow place Phaeton near- 

 est to the base of the steganopod series, and there is much 

 to be said for this way of looking at the group. There is no 

 doubt that Phaeton is very different from the other genera 

 of the group ; indeed, if it were not for Fregata it would be 

 difficult to avoid removing it altogether. It is really not 

 desmognathous (in the sense of Huxley) ; for the maxillo- 

 palatines do not fuse ; in front of them there is a bony plat- 

 form, forming the hard palate, but this is produced from 

 anterior ingrowths of the maxillse, not homologous with the 

 maxillo-palatines, which are present and unfused. The 

 vomer, moreover, is well developed and bifid posteriorly; 

 being exceedingly like the bifid vomer of such schizognathous 

 birds as the grebe, ^ohmophorus. In Fregata we have a 

 further step. The vomer has coalesced into a single rod ; 

 the palatines have united posteriorly ; the os uncinatum, 

 rudimentary in Phaeton, has increased (?), and the grooves 

 running from the nostrils to the end of the beak have put in 

 an appearance ; furthermore the nostrils, pervious in Phae- 

 ton, have acquired the steganopodous imperviousness. The 

 maxillo-palatines, however, are not united ; but beneath them. 



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