151 
DEVELOPMENT OF THE SKULL IN THE BATRACHIA. 
what is seen in II. temporalis, where the muzzle is very broad : here the fore and hind 
regions are equal, and each is three-fourths the length of the mid skull, which is both 
long and broad. 
The occipital condyles (Plate 28, figs. 1 and 2, oc.c .) are postero-inferior, and are 
moderately large. A considerable tract of cartilage remains in both the basi- and 
superoccipital regions ; there is a triangular endosteal super occipital hone (figs. 1 and 5, 
s.o .) ; and the bony tracts ( pr.oe.o .) of the same side are quite confluent. Below, the 
bone leaves an even crescent of cartilage at the margin of the floor of the vestibule 
(au.) ; above, the bone is snagged, and leaves an irregular cartilaginous tegmen (fig. 1). 
I could find no secondary fontanelles, but a very large long mam space with no 
lateral ingrowth for a considerable distance* along the sides, quite unlike the next. 
Moreover, this deficiency of the “tegmen cranii” shows itself both behind and before : 
behind, the roof is devoid of cartilage up to the ear-capsules; and in front the roof 
extends a very short distance over the hemispheres. As this is a young specimen, 
the ear-masses and the nasal roofs show much of their primary form ; they are not 
drawn into new shapes by the overgrowth of the peripheral bones and arches. 
Hence comes the narrowness of the skull in the auditory region, for the tegmen 
tympani is merely a narrow selvedge to the ovoidal ear-sacs; this would be at least 
somewhat modified in an old individual. On the whole, the orbital region, or mid¬ 
skull, is very Polypedatine, but is broadest behind, narrows gently, and widens out 
again towards the ethmoidal region. 
What is very remarkable in so young a skull is the trespassing of the so-called 
“ prootic ” round the front of the foramen ovale (V.), even so as to include the lesser 
cranial nerves between it and the foramen opticum (II.). Therefore, so early, the 
orbital region is half of it bony, the girdle-bone (eth.) being as long as the cartilage 
behind it. It runs into the septum nasi (s.n.) both above and below ; then it takes in all 
its own cartilage,athwart the ethmoidal “wings;” above, it scants a little, and leaves 
the edge of the ethmoidal roof, at its junction with the nasal roofs (fig. 1), naked. 
These roofs are very large and broad (fig. 1), larger than the floor (fig. 2); the inter- 
trabecular wedge (or wall) between both grows into a distant “prenasal rostrum” 
( p.n.) in front, which is a new thing in an Oriental member of this Family. Never¬ 
theless, the snout is very broad, and the rostrum, which is drawn as dissected out in 
the figures, in reality turns downward, as in embryos of all kinds that possess this 
projecting cartilage. In this kind, as in its congeners, the nostrils (e.n.) are very 
wide apart, nearly as wide as the “choange” or inner openings (fig. 2, i.n.). The pro= 
rhinals ( p.rh .) and the labials ( u.D-.u.l 2 .) are well developed. 
The arrest of the “ parotic wings,” in a skull with such long regions, causes the 
facial “bow” to be strongly bent; otherwise all is normal; the bones (pa ., pg.) are 
already of the normal size and strength, and leave a cartilaginous palato-suspensorial 
of the average size. 
The forks of this arch differ greatly, for the pedicle (pd.) is very short, and the 
