OSTEOLOGY OF BIRDS 



349 



Either postpalatine is likewise narrow, and makes a close and 

 rather extensive articulation with its fellow of the opposite side, 

 heneath the sphenoidal rostrum, each extending for a little distance 

 upon the sides of the latter. Posteriorly, a palatine is elongotruncate, 

 while its anterior process is spiculiform. There is no vomer in this 

 specimen, but it is quite possible it may have been lost, as it some- 

 times is to be found in Coccyzus. Both in Coccystes and in Cuculus, 

 as well as in the Cuculinae of this country, the pterygoid, of either 

 side, is a short, slender bone with raised and sharpened superior 

 border, very small quadratal end and articulation, while, anteriorly, 

 its extremity is somewhat expanded to meet, for its entire depth, 

 the palatine of the corresponding side. They do not quite meet 

 each other in the median line when articulated. Coming to the 

 quadrate of each side, we find the bone, for its several processes, 

 much compressed, the borders being sharp and the facets elongate, 

 except in the case of the outer one on the mastoidal head, which 

 is hemispherical in form. Either basipterygoidal process is aborted, 

 and the broad basitemporal surface occupies a higher plane than 

 the exoccipitals. The occipital condyle is very small, and the large 

 foramen magnum is of an elliptical outline, its major axis being 

 transverse. In Cuculus it is nearly circular, where, too, the supra- 

 occipital prominence is not as well developed as it is in Coccystes. 



This Great spotted cuckoo possesses a mandible and hyoidean 

 arches practically in no way differing from those elements of the 

 skeleton as we find them among the true Cuculinae generally, though 

 the ramal vacuity in the common cuckoo of Europe and in the 

 species now being considered is not as open as I found it to be 

 in Coccyzus and Geococcyx, or even as in Centropus super- 

 c i 1 i o s u s and Diplopterus naevius, representing other 

 subfamilies of this interesting group of birds. 1 The sclerotal plates 

 of the eye and ossiculae of the ear require no special description. 

 From my examination I found nothing peculiar about them. 



Axial skeleton. While the general characters of the vertebrae 

 and ribs agree in the main in the various species of Old and New 

 World cuckoos I have thus far examined, they nevertheless present 

 differences in the several subfamilies in the matter of the number 

 of the vertebral bones, as well as a consequent difference in the 

 arrangement of certain of the ribs. These similarities and differ- 

 ences may best be compared when tabulated as follows : 



1 Shufeldt, R. W. loc. cit. Plate 2, figures 7 and 15. This foramen is also very 

 small in Crotophaga, figure 8. 



