3H 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Both of these skulls have a foramen on either side of the /upra- 

 occipital prominence, the pair being much larger in the large skull 

 than they are in the other. I have elsewhere 

 pointed out that these apertures may exist as 

 extensive vacuities, or be altogether absent in 

 the same species of duck or goose. 



They constitute by no means a constant 

 character for the same species of any of the 

 group, so far as my observations go ; and, 

 indeed, in the same skull the foramen may 

 be present on one side and absent on the 

 other. 



The pterygoids and the basipterygoidal 

 facets are here, as we find them among the 

 anserine birds generally, and the articulation 

 of the heads of the former with the proximal 

 ends of the palatines is the same. 



As in the members of its group, too, we 

 find the vomer to be an oblong lamina of bone 

 placed vertically, with its forward projecting 

 spine, from the anterosuperior angle, resting 

 on the osseous median mass representing the 

 fused maxillopalatine elements in front of it. 



Skeleton of the tongue in the geese. As 



compared with the hyoid as found in other 

 birds, the chief peculiarity here is in the 

 form of the glossohyal, it being very broad 

 and of an oblong-oval outline, three times as 

 long as wide. It is somewhat concaved on 

 its dorsum, and correspondingly convexed 

 ventrad. Anteriorly, this bone of the arch 

 terminates in an elongated cartilaginous tip 

 [see fig. 42, a], while upon the ventral aspect 

 behind may be seen the evidences of the 

 coalesced ceratohyals. The first and second 

 basibranchials have united firmly to form one 

 single piece. At the fore end of this, osseous 

 lips are found, one superior to the other with 

 a verticoconcave surface between them to ar- 

 ticulate with the glossohyal. 



The first basibranchial is of a triangular outline, and somewhat 

 compressed from above downward; the second, about equal in 



Fig. 42 Hyoid bones of 

 a goose, Branta cana- 

 densis; dorsal view, nat- 

 ural size, a, the anterior car- 

 tilaginous tip of the glosso- 

 hyal (b) ; c, first basibran- 

 chial; d, second basibran- 

 chial; e, ceratobranchial; f, 

 epibranchial. Drawn by 

 the author from a speci- 

 men in his own collection, 

 now in the New York State 

 Museum 



