222 The Alligator and Its Allies 
the brain, though its further course could not 
be followed; (2) a somewhat larger posteriorly 
directed artery, oc, going to the muscles at the 
occipital region of the skull; (3) a short laterally 
directed stem, z’. The last-named branch, 2’, 
in turn, leads in three directions: (a) to the collater- 
alis colli artery through the connective x’; (b) 
a short anteriorly directed vessel, e, that passes 
into the skull, possibly to the ear, through the 
large foramen that lies between the exoccipital and 
quadrate bones; it gives off a small twig, q, to the 
muscles in the region of the jaw articulation 
(quadrate); (c) the main stem of the branch z 
continues laterad and cephalad as one of the chief 
arteries, z’, to the anterior region of the skull, 
giving off a fairly wide branch, jm’, to the large 
jaw muscle, and then two branches, o* and 0’, to 
the lateral surface of the eyeball and socket; it 
then anastomoses, just cephalad and laterad to the 
eye, with the forward continuation, cm’, of the 
corresponding main stem, cm, of the common 
carotid, already mentioned. The vessel cm’, 
after almost meeting its fellow in the middle 
line, passes cephalad and laterad across the 
ventral surface of the eye to the union, above 
mentioned, with the lateral branch, z?; at the 
posterior-mesial border of the eye it gives off a 
branch that divides into two twigs, one, 0%, for 
the posterior eye muscles, and one, e’, to the 
region of the ear and the top of the skull. 
