578 
Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa. 
nomical use in the case of families and genera. Moreover, when Professor 
Huxley says that " the lachrymal and the post-orbital bend towards one 
another, and frequently unite below the orbit" (p. 465), he makes a state- 
ment, as will be shown further on in the present paper, that does not hold 
true for all parrots. 
Many years ago, I published an account of the skeleton of our now 
nearly extinct Carolina parrot, and later, a somewhat more extensive con- 
tribution on the osteology of a number of species of the family, with an 
account of the skeleton of the famous Owl Parrot included in the same 
article.* Shortly after these appeared, the late Professor St, George Mivart 
kindly sent me reprints of some of his own work on the osteology of this 
group, and these papers are now at hand.f 
Then we have for consultation the classical works on the osteology of 
these birds by E. Blanchard, Sir Eichard Owen, Max Piirbringer, and a few 
others. 
The Slcidl. — As in all of the Psittaci thus far examined by me, the skull, 
when viewed from above (Plate XL, fig. 2), is smooth and hemiglobular 
with respect to the vault or cranial region, while it is markedly very broad 
and flat between the sharp superior margins of the orbits. Between this 
area and the base of the broadly rounded and much decurved superior 
mandible, there is found the long, transverse " cranio-facial hinge," here 
represented by a fine, slit-like groove, perpendicular to the long axis of the 
cranium. Beyond this line a short distance are the rather large, subcircular 
narial apertures, either one facing forwards, upwards and outwards. Their 
margins are sharp, and projecting from within one of these openings there 
is a free little process of bone. This is also seen to be present in Ara 
chloroptera and other Psittaci, and in adult birds it is somewhat difiicult to 
say from which bone of the face it is developed. In Palaeornis, however, 
it would appear to be a free, shell-like ossification, held in place by the 
surrounding membrane in the upper region of the rhinal chamber. In no 
parrot is it connected with the anterior part of the mesethmoid, while in 
the big macaws it seems to fuse almost indistinguishably in the adult with 
^ Shufeldt, R. W. : " Osteology of the Conurus carolinensis." Journ. of Anat. and 
Phys., London, April, 1886, vol. xx, Plates X and XI, pp. 407-425. "Osteology of the 
Psittaci." Annals of the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburg, Pa., 1902, vol. i, Plates XXI- 
XXIV, pp. 399-421. 
t Mivart, St. George, F.E.S. : " On the Hyoid Bone of Certain Parrots." P.Z.S. 
Lond., March 5, 1895, pp. 162-174, figs. 1-6. This is an excellent jDaper with instruc- 
tive illustrations. In it Professor Mivart said: "That the Parrots should have a 
tongue-bone of exceptional form is, of course, only what was to be expected from the 
exceptional form of their tongue as a whole" (p. 163). " The Skeleton of Lorius flavo- 
j>alliatus compared with that of Psittacus erithacns " (Part I). P.Z.S., Lond., April 2, 
1895, pp. 312-337, figs. 1-22. " On the Hyoid Bones of Nestor meridionalis and Nanodes 
discolor." P.Z.S., Lond., February 4, 1896, pp. 236-340, figs. 1 and 2. 
