362 DR. E. W. SHUFELDt's MORPHOIOCflCAL 



of the other skulls of the Hirundinid^. This is priueipally du, 

 to the fact that in the skull of Taolyeineta the base of the osseou 

 superior mandible is not nearly so broad in comparison as it i 

 among the other Swallows, and consequently more nearly a„ 

 preaches in appearance the skull of some of those Passeres which 

 possess mandibles with rather broad bases. 



The structural details seen at the base of the skull in Tad, 

 cineta_ tUla.sina I have already shown in a previous memoir 



TvTl ^ ^^f""^^^"^' P^"-'^ » specimen of that Swallow' 

 (P. Z. S. 885, p. 899, fig. F ); and as that figure is readily acces- 

 sible to the reader, a comparison of it with the figures in the 

 present paper may be made without diiBculty 



Nothing worthy of special record is to be found in the ^^an- 

 diHe norm the lyoid of the skulls or the latter apparatus 



m the genus Taelycineta ; they present all the true characteri.- 

 tics of those parts as already described above with sufficient fulness 

 tor the ^^r««&-,jeW«. generally, and our present purpose. 



What I have just said of the skulls and associated parts as found 

 m tiie two species of the genus Taclycineta applies with equal 

 truth to the corresponding structures as found in Glivioola riLia 

 and m Stelytdopteryx serripennis, of which I have several examples 

 oi each beiore me. 



In their general form they, too, remind us more of the skulls 

 of certain other types of Oscines than do the skulls of the other 

 Swal ows which were described above, previous to our taking up 

 the skulls of the genus IVicAyeme/a. 



Of the remainder of the A^ial Skeleton in the Hirundinidce.- 

 My labour IS considerably lightened here from the fact that I 

 have already touched with some degree of fulness npon the axial 

 skeleton of in my fi.-st memoir in the ' Proceedings 



of the Zoological Society' (1885, p. 906); aad then, again, the 

 sternum and shoulder-girdle of the Swallows is very wel! known 

 making any detailed account of it here unnecessary 



% those who have read it, it may be remembered that I found 

 3o vertebrae and a pygostyle in the spinal column of a Swift (Mi- 



iTaehyotneta). Upon careful examination I am now 

 ena e to state that this is the normal number for all on^ 

 Swallows and I have yet to find an exception to it. Should such 

 an exception be found. I predict .t will simply be a free, and 



