108 
MR. W. K. PARKEE ON THE STRUCTURE AND 
nostrils much nearer together—-ao-ainst rule—than the outer. This is one of the 
lowest and most generalised of the Itanidse. 
The occipital condyles (Plate 20, figs. 1, 2, oc.c .) are large, oval, and postero-inferior ; 
they are separated by a coucave notch of their own width. The whole hind skull has 
a remarkable form, for the auditory capsules are very large and thoroughly ossified, 
yet the canals project very much both before and behind, pushing the epiotic eminence 
almost as far back as the occipital condyles, and the anterior (prootic) swelling, caused 
lay the anterior canals, into the orbital region. The parotic projections suddenly 
become one-half the size of the main capsule and are only one-third at the tegmen 
( fi g- !)• The extreme edge of this part (inside sq.) is unossified, and there is a small 
semi-osseous tract in the superoccipital region; all the rest of the endocranium is 
ossified up to the middle of the nasal septum (fig. 2, etli.) below, and still further 
forwards above (fig. 1, s.n.). 
Moreover, the parasphenoid behind, and the fronto-parietals for fully two-thirds of 
them extent, are anchylosed to the bone within. The temporal fossae are deep rounded 
hollows ; the orbital region of the skull, from thence, swells gently, and then remains 
of the average width up to the antorbital bars ; then there is a slight superorbital 
projection, but it also is ossified. 
The tegmen of this hard endocranium is extensive before, but more so behind ; for 
that tract reaches so far as to lie over the front edge of the optic fenestra (II.). The 
edges of the open part are wide, so that the single fontanelle ( fo .) is only one-fourth 
the length of the cranial cavity, and is narrow, and pinched in the middle. Here the 
roof is almost covered in, as in some old Skates’ skulls. 
The girdle-bone, as in some Salamanders, is not marked off behind; in front it runs 
far forward into the true nasal region, and right and left, ossifies the ethmoidal wings, 
but stops at the etlnno-palatines (fig. 1, e.pa.) exactly where the segment is in the genus 
Bufo. The nasal region (n.r.) is very remarkable, being, like that of Bombinator 
(Plate 25, fig. l), merely a transverse double pouch ending in a broad sub-arcuate 
snout, which is scarcely covered by the nasals, which lie mainly on the proper ethmoidal 
tract. Hence the outer nostrils ( e.n .) are very wide apart; but the floor being very 
narrow where the trabeculae originally came first into contact in the internasal region 
the inner nostrils (fig. 2, i.n. ), although large and round, are very near together for a 
Batrachian ; the relative distances are exactly reversed in this case. 
The roof (n.r.) is narrow from the ethmoid onwards, but the nasal wall (fig. 1) 
forms a pouch behind the outer nostril. The inner labial (u.l 1 .) is small, and lies 
against the front of the broad snout; the outer piece (u.l 2 .) is in front of the nostril. 
Below (fig. 2), the trabeculae in becoming the floor have scarcely changed their form 
at all; but they have budded out into a pair of large falciform, secondary cornua at 
their inner angle ; these are the pro-rhinals (p.rh.). 
The palato-suspensorials are normal in the palatine region, and the bone (pa.) is of 
the usual /-shape ; it forms but little union with the cartilage. 
