98 GENERAL OBNITHOLOGY. 



skull. This is called the " angle of the jaw ; " it is a good landmark, which must by no means 

 be confused with the " angle of the mouth," where the horny parts of the beak come together. 

 The hre (Lat. lorum, a strap, or bridle ; hence, place where the cheek-strap passes ; fig. 25, 3) 

 includes pretty much aU the space between the eye and the side of the base of the upper 

 mandible; a considerable part of it is simply ante-orbital. Thus we say of a hawk, "lores 

 bristly ; " and examination of a bird of that kind will show how large a space is covered by the 

 term. Lore, however, should properly be restricted to a narrow line between the eye and biU 

 in the direction of the nostrUs. It is excellently shown in the heron and grebe families, where 

 " naked lores" is a distinctive character. The lore is an important place, not only from being 

 thus marked in many birds, but from being frequently the seat of specially modified or specially 

 colored feathers. The rest of the side of the head, including the space between angle of jaw 

 and bill, has the name of cheek (Lat. genu, first eyelid, then, and generally, the prominence 

 under the eye formed by the cheek-bones; fig. 25, 36). It is bounded above by loral, infra- 

 orbital, and auricular regions ; below, by a more or less straight line, representing the lower 

 edge of the bony prong of the under mandible. It is cleft in front for a varying distance by the 

 backward extension of the gape of the mouth ; above this gape is more properly genu, or malar 

 region (Lat. mala, upper jaw) in strictness; below it is jaw (maxilla), or rather "side of the 

 jaw." The lower edge of the jaw definitely separates the side of the head from the " under 

 surface " of the head ; properly bounded behind by an imaginary line drawn straight across from 

 one angle of the jaw to the other, and running forward to a point between the forks of the 

 under mandible. As already hinted, "throat" (gula ; fig. 35, 37) extends upward and forward 

 into this space vrithout obvious dividing line ; it runs into chin (Lat. mentum ; fig. 35, 38), of 

 which it is only to be said, that it is the (varying in extent) anterior part of the under surface 

 of the head. Anteriorly, it may be conveniently marked oflf, opposite the point where the 

 feathers end on the side of the lower jaw, fi'om the feathery space (when any) between the 

 branches of the upper mandible itself; this latter is called the interramal space (Lat. inter, 

 between, ramus, fork). 



The head is so often marked lengthwise with different colors, apt to take such definite 

 position, that these lines have received special names. Median vertical line is one along the 

 middle of pileum, from base of bill to nucha ; lateral vertical limes bound it on either side. 

 SwprdUary Jme has already been noticed ; below it runs the lateral stripe ; that part of it 

 before the eye, is loral or ante-orbital ; behind the eye, post-orbital ; when these are continu- 

 ous through the eye, they form a trans-ocular (Lat. trans, across ; ocul/us, eye) lAne ; below 

 this is malar lime, or cheek-stripe (Lat. frenum, a bridle) ; below this, on the under jaw, max- 

 illary or submaxillary lime ; in the middle below, mental or gular lines. 



No part of the body has so variable a ptilosis as the head. In the great majority of birds 

 it is wholly and densely feathered ; it ranges from this to wholly naked ; but nakedness, it 

 should be observed, means only absence of perfect feathers, for most birds with unfeathered 

 heads have a hair-like growth of filoplumes on the skin. Our samples of naked-headed birds 

 are the turkey, the vultures, the cranes, and some of the heron tribe, as ibises. Associated with 

 more or less complete " baldness," is the frequent presence of various fleshy outgrowths, as 

 combs, wattles, carv/ncles (warty excrescences), lobes, and flaps of aU sorts, even to enumerate 

 which would exceed our limits. The parts of the barn-yard cock exemplify the whole ; among 

 North American birds they are very rare, being confined, in evident development at any rate, 

 to the wild turkey. Sometimes horny plates take the place of feathers on part of the head ; as 

 the frontal shields of the coots and gaUinules. A very common form of head-nakedness marks 

 one whole order of birds, the Steganopodes, which have mentum and more or less of gula 

 naked, and transformed into a sort of pouch, extremely developed in the pelicans, and well seen 

 in the cormorants. The next commonest is definite bareness of the lores, as in all herons 

 and grebes ; in the fonner including the whole circum-orbital region. A little orbital space is 



