54 



THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXXVII. 



side in the middle line above the ethmoid, so that the latter 

 does not appear on the dorsal surface ; premaxillary groove on 

 upper surface of nasals extends backwards to or beyond naso- 

 frontal suture. Premaxilla strong ; body more or less elevated, 

 and with a distinct prenarial septum ; palatine processes broad 

 and produced into more or less definite vomerine processes; 

 width of body always more than half and sometimes one and a 

 half times length of basis cranii. Maxilla short and narrow ; 

 maxillo-palatine a short, flat plate, produced dorsad either into 

 an irregular shell of bone containing a large antrum, or into a 

 thick, oblique plate containing no, or but little, trace of the 



Vomer less than one and a half times length of basis cranii ; 

 consists of thin paired plates meeting each other ventrad in 

 an acute dihedral angle, and either quite free or partially 

 ankylosed with one another in front ; firmly ankylosed behind, 

 in fully adult specimens, with palatines and pterygoids. 



Palatine a thin twisted plate, about one and a fifth times 

 length of basis cranii ; peclate posterior end produced into 

 short mesial vomerine process ; articulates at anterior end 

 with maxilla, and posteriorly with vomer and pterygoid, with 

 which, in fully adult specimens, it becomes ankylosed. 



Mandible very strong ; symphysis short, more or less flattened 

 and ridged below ; distal end more or less deflected downwards. 



The best part, or an extremely useful feature in connection 

 with Parker's work, from which the above is quoted, is the 

 excellent series of plates that illustrate it. These are devoted 

 to the skulls of the various genera of the Dinornithidae 

 {Emeus, Anomalopteryx, Mesopteryx, Pachyornis, Dinornis), 

 as well as a number of colored figures, showing the relation- 

 ships to each other of the cranial bones in Emeus and 

 Anomolopteryx. 



Suborder V. ^pyornithes. 



Family : ^Epyornithid/e (^pyornis, the roc). 

 This group has been created to contain the now extinct 

 ostrich-like birds of the island of Madagascar. Fossil and 

 subfossil specimens of eggs and bones were first accurately 



