242 GENERAL ORNITHOLOGY part ii 



case the relations of the palatals to each other and their connections 

 afford some of the most valuable zoological characters of great groups 

 of birds. (Details figured and described beyond.) Though very 

 variable in configuration, as well as in connections, certain parts of 

 a palatal may usually be recognised, and conveniently named for 

 descriptive purposes. Anteriorly, in the great majority of birds, of 

 whatever technical kind of palatal structure, the palatals are simply 

 prolonged as flat strap-like or lath-like bars running past the maxil- 

 lary to the premaxillary region ; and such simple band-like charac- 

 ter may be preserved behind. Ordinarily, however, the palatals 

 expand posteriorly, becoming more or less laminar; and in this 

 plate-like part three surfaces may usually be recognised. One, more 

 or less horizontal, flaring outward, is the external lamina. It is well 

 shown in a Passerine or Eaptorial bird, where the postero-external 

 angle (between the outer border and the posterior end) of the pala- 

 tal is well marked, or may be acutely produced ; there is no such 

 lamina in a fowl, where the palatals are for the most part slender 

 and rod-like. An internal plate, more or less vertically produced 

 to make the mid-line rostral or vomerine connection, is the superior 

 internal lamina, or mediopalatine process ; very strong, for example, 

 in a fowl, where it forms all the expanded part of the bone, and 

 ends anteriorly as a sharp inter-palatine spur. The mediopalatine 

 is probably to be regarded as the main body of the bone, being the 

 most axial part, of the most extensive and varied connections. A 

 third lip or plate of the palatal is the inferior internal lamina, look- 

 ing downward ; it is generally very evident, but in a duck or fowl 

 is reduced to a mere ridge, indicating where the superior internal 

 and external laminae meet. A duck's palatals are quite different in 

 appearance from those of most birds, all the posterior parts just dis- 

 tinguished been reduced and constricted, while the fore ends, 

 running abruptly into the hard-boned beak, are much expanded 

 horizontally (Fig. 78). The postero-external angles of the palatal 

 (formed by the external lamina), even when much produced, may 

 not reach as far back as opposite the pterygopalatine articulation ; 

 or they may surpass these limits, and when they do, such backward 

 prolongation is called postpalatine, the palate being considered to 

 end at the pterygoids. In like manner, the maxillary processes of 

 the palatals, or the palatal strips as prolonged into the premaxillary 

 region, are called prepalatines. The inner posterior process, by 

 which the palatine is articulated with the pterygoid, is its pterygoid ■ 

 process. 



The Premaxillapy Bones (Figs. 62, 63, a, 69, 70, 71, 80, px, 

 75 to 79, pmx), also called Intepmaxillaries, form most of the upper 

 beak, attaining enormous development in birds, and reversing the 

 usual relative size of premaxillary and maxillary. Mainly deter- 



