4 
Osteological Studies of the Sub-Famity A 7 r dance. 
Garrod did little or nothing with the oste- 
logy of the Herons, his researches being con¬ 
fined in them to the study of the condition of 
the carotids, and certain muscles of the thigh. 
Of the Skull of Ardea herodias :—Upon 
superior view of the skull of this Heron, our 
attention is first directed to its long, narrow, 
and sharp-pointed bill. This has the outline 
of a lofty isosceles triangle, of which the base 
is the line made at the site of the cranio-facial 
angle, and its apex, the tip of the beak. This 
surface is pierced in several localities, notably 
near the apex, and in front of the nostrils, by 
minute formina, while its sides and ridge are 
venated. The osseous cultnen, owing to a 
linear depression on either side, passing for¬ 
wards from the nostril, is in mid-region semi- 
cylindrical, which convex surface is continued 
on the apex, while above the nostrils and the 
precranio-facial region, though still convex is 
broader and flatter. The narial apertures are 
seen from this view, but their true form can 
best be described from a lateral aspect of the 
skull. 
Across the cranio-facial articulation there 
is seen a transverse, depressed tract, some three 
or four millimetres wide, where mesially, the 
remains of the naso-premaxillary suture is still 
observable in the adult. This transverse tract 
is quite thin, and owing to the fact that the 
ethmoid stops abruptly behind it, beneath, on 
a line with its posterior boundary, it allows 
considerable movement in the vertical plane of 
the bill on the remainder of the skull. How 
free this is in life I cannot at this moment say, 
as I have not a Blue Heron in the flesh before 
me. This depression fixes the boundary very 
definitely between the frontal and postero- 
Fig. i. 
Fig. i. Superior aspect of the skull of Ardea herodias, mandible removed Fr uu a 
specimen obtained bv the author in Wyoming. Same skull used for the figures of that 
part of the skeleton of this Ileron throughout the memoir. 
