i8o 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



angle of bending we find the semiglobular facet for the quadratal 

 end of the corresponding pterygoid. This latter bone has a shaft 

 much compressed from before backward, twisted upon itself, and 

 terminating anteriorly in a club-shaped head, so fashioned as to 

 present an elliptical facet for articulation with a similar surface at 

 the side of the rostrum, and more anteriorly a cupped depression 

 to admit the outturned pterygoidal end of the corresponding pala- 

 tine. These bones are shown in situ in figures 2 and 4. 



A very meager lip of bone juts forward as the mesial anterior 

 process of the basitemporal to underlap the entrances to the 

 Eustachian tubes in front ; while posterior to this site the basi- 

 temporal area itself is broad from side to side, and much convexed 

 in the anteroposterior direction. Just within the otic margin, on 

 either side, we find the usual group of three foramina, for the 

 passage of nerves and vessels [fig. 4 i. c, 8, 9]. An excavation 

 exists in front of the single, small and superiorly notched occipital 

 condyle, above which is seen the rather large, subcircular foramen 

 magnum. 



The occipital area on the posterior aspect of the cranium [fig. 7] 

 is faintly bounded by a raised, subcordate ridge, and the rather 

 well marked supraoccipital prominence is unpierced by any fora- 

 mina in either of my specimens. Referring to the outline assumed 

 by the foramen magnum in fowls, Darwin [loc. cit.] once more 

 points out for us some of its varying features when he says that 

 " the most remarkable character is the shape of the occipital fora- 

 men ; in G. bankiva the breadth in a horizontal line exceeds, 

 the hight in a vertical line, and the outline is nearly circular ; 

 whereas in Cochins the outline is subtrianglar. and the vertical line 

 exceeds the horizontal line in length. This same form likewise 

 occurs in the Black bantam above referred to, and an approach 

 to it may be seen in some Dorkings and in a slight degree in certain 

 other breeds.'' 



Nothing worthy of special note, beyond what we already know, 

 characterizes the small, intrinsic ossicles of the otic organ ; and in 

 the eye we find from 13 to 16 well ossified " sclerotic plates," of 

 which the anterior ones, as they are arranged in the circumpupilar 

 circlet, are not so wide nor so deep as the more posterior ones ; 

 indeed, as they pass round, overlapping each other in their course, 

 they gradually increase in these dimensions, till we arrive at the 

 hindermost one of all, which is usually the biggest one. 



Directing our attention next to the mandible of G. bankiva 

 we find its form accurately portrayed in figures 2 and 5, and it is 



