Osteology of Palaeornis. 
577 
of a brilliant vermilion red, with the apex tipped with black ; the lower 
mandible was entirely black. Irides very pale straw yellow ; feet pale flesh 
colour. The character and colour of the plumage is well shown in the 
plates. 
The Skeleton. 
(Plates XL and XLI, figs. 1-8.) 
Introduction. — Tip to the present time the osteology of the Parrots or 
Psittaci has, as compared with that of other birds, been touched upon but 
very lightly. Neither Garrod nor Forbes gave the subject any very serious 
attention. The first-named ornithotomist, as we know, devoted himself 
principally to certain peculiarities of the muscles and arterial system in 
those birds, as he did in the case of other representatives of the class Aves. 
He gave some attention, however, to the furcula as well as to the oil-gland. 
That this was the case was much deplored by the late Alfred Newton, F.E.S., 
who said in regard to it, in his article " Parrot " in the Ninth Edition of the 
Encyclopaedia Britamiica, when referring to what little G-arrod had done 
even with i\\Q furcula : " But except as regards the last character he unfortu- 
nately almost wholly neglected the rest of the skeleton, looking upon such 
osteological features as the formation of an orbital ring and peculiarities of 
the atlas as ' of minor importance,' an estimate to which nearly every 
anatomist will demur ; for, though undoubtedly the characters afforded by 
blood-vessels and muscles are useful in default of osteological characters, it 
is obvious that these last, drawn from the very framework of any vertebrate's 
structure, cannot be inferior in value to the former." * 
Huxley, in his time-honoured and admirable paper " On the Classification 
of Birds " (P.Z.S., 1867, pp. 465, 466), gives some of the salient characters 
on the skeleton of the Psittacomorphae, which are very useful for the 
purposes of classification, but not sufficiently extensive for all other purposes. 
They are excellent for group definition, while not exact enough for taxo- 
* " Indeed/' continues Professor Newton in the same place, "the investigations of 
Professor A. Milne-Edwards (Ann. Sc. Nat. Geologie, ser. 5, vi, pp. 91-111 ; viii, 
pp. 145-156) on the bones of the head in various Psittacine forms make ifc clear that 
these alone present features of much significance, and if his investigations had not 
been carried on for a special object, but had been extended to other parts of the 
skeleton, there is little doubt that they would have removed some of the greatest 
difficulties. The one osteological character to which Garrod trusted — namely, the 
condition of the furcula — cannot be said to contribute much towards a safe basis of 
classification. That it is wholly absent in some genera of parrots had long been 
known, but its imperfect ossification, it appears, is not attended in some cases by any 
diminution of volant powers, which tends to show that it is an unimportant character, 
an inference confirmed by the fact that it is found wanting in genera placed geo- 
graphically so far apart that the loss must have had in some of them an independent 
origin" (loc. cit., p. 323). 
