STUDIES OF THE MACROCniBES. 



385 



very distinct kinds of Goatsuckers, and this, as we now know, is 

 sustained by other parts of the structure of the birds in question. 

 In this connection, however, I may add that I have recently 

 examined a nearly adult specimen of Chordeiles virginianus, 

 kindly procured for me by Dr. W. S. Strode of Bernadotte, 

 Illinois. In this 1 find that the maxillo-palatines do not meet in 

 the median line, but are pressed close against the sides of the 

 vomer on each side. This latter bone is bifurcated behind, and 

 into the fork the antero-median point of the palatines is wedged. 

 The vomer comes well forward, anteriorly, where it is bluntly 

 pointed and thicker than it is behind. It is only in the immature 

 bird that these true relations can be studied, for in all species of 

 this genus, as they attain to maturity, these several bones indis- 

 tinguishably fuse, and present the appearance shown in the basal 

 view of the skull of Chordeiles acutijpennis var. teocemis (P. Z. S. 

 1885, pi. lix. fig. 4), where, however, the vomer is not quite 

 correctly indicated, for the lines designated by Vo go to the 

 mesial fused portion of the palatines, and not to the vomer, 

 which in that skull is co- ossified with the maxillo-palatines, and 

 only its median line and anterior apex are seen. 



Anatomical Notes uj^on the Nestling Trochilus, 

 a dag or two old. 



First, I remove the delicate skin from the specimen's head, 

 and note that the ends of the hgoidean apparatus have not 

 proceeded beyond the posterior area of the parietal region, and 

 that, although the tongue is short, still it shows well the embryonic 

 condition of the two glosso-hyoidean rods which become so long 

 in the adult Humming-bird. 



The nasal hones lap rather high up on the frontal region, and 

 mesially meet the backward-extending limb of the premaxillary 

 for their entire borders, thus leaving no vacuity in this locality, 

 as is to be seen in the postero-culmenar space of the superior 

 aspect of the upper mandible in an adult Cgpselus. 



In size, the lacrgmal bones are exceeding small, and I am in- 

 clined to think that w ere we able to define their sutural bounda- 

 ries in the skull of the adult, we should find that they contribute 

 but a meagre share to the wide expanse of bone in the pars plana 

 of the mature Trochilus. 



■ At the base o£ the skull we note that the tiny palatines, the 

 jugals, quadrato-jugals, and even pterygoids are now considerably 

 ossified; and that the latter elements are separated at their 



