DEVELOPMENT OF THE SKULL IN THE BATRACHIA. 
187 
bossed, and sub-oval, with an oblique antero-superior emargination. The columella 
is pistol-shaped, large proximally, and small distally. The medio-stapedial ( m.st.) is 
notched above, and carries a huge unossified inter-stapedial lobe ( i.st'.), not separate ; 
the extra-stapedial ( e.st .) is tongue-shaped, with a side wing which ends abruptly 
without an ascending process. 
The stylo-hyal (st.h.) is confluent above, and passes into a band (fig. 4, c.hy.) which 
widens gently and passes back ( h.hy .) into the basal plate without a lobe. The great 
front notch is a wide semi-circular space ; the basal plate (Jj.li.br.) is one-third larger 
fore and aft than in most of the Ilylce; the front lobes are small, and the hind lobes 
sharp ; the thyro-hyals ( t.hy.) are long, gently divergent, and dilated behind. The 
mandible (fig. 3) is normal, the raento-Meckelian ( m.mk .) moderate, the dentary (d.) 
large, the coronoid process of the articulare ( ar .) small, and the condyle ( ar.c .) solid, 
and sinuously rounded. 
The investing bones must be compared with those of Calyptocephalus and Pelobates 
(Plates 21 and 25) ; they are thick, ornately sculptured, and sub-ganoid. Where- 
ever these bones are directly sub-cutaneous there they are elegantly honeycombed ; 
the pits are well cleared, and the network of ridges sharp. 
The fronto-parietals (fig. 1, fp.), like the other outer bones, are wide and strong, 
as in the species of Bufo. Their form is many-cornered, with the antero-external and 
postero-external margins concave, and the hind margin crenate, and notched ; together, 
they reach, behind, over the rising parts of the auditory capsule, and each sends a 
round process backwards which clamps the front part of the epiotic eminence ( p.s.c.). 
Towards the middle they cover the front third of the occipital arch. Binding on the 
anterior canal (a.s.c.) they send a sharp postorbital process outwards, and then run, with 
a concave margin, their sharp-edged superorbital plate up to the proper superorbital 
eave ( s.ob .). Their pointed diverging fore part retreats and exposes the girdle and the 
fontanelle. There is a supraorbital fossa, beyond which the bone is strongly honey¬ 
combed, and also over the temporal edge behind ; there is there, on each side, one large 
oval fossa, more strongly marked than the rest. The nasals ( n .) form a pair of bony 
wings, whose long tips bend down to lie along the top of the maxillary (mx.) ; they 
overlap the frontals, the girdle-bone, and the ethmo-palatines, and leave the front part 
of the snout naked. They are only moderately wide, much angulated, sculptured, and 
they meet to form a nasal suture, and dip to reach the “ girdle.” 
The premaxi 11 aries, maxillaries, and quadrato-jugals (px., mx., q.j.) are normal in 
form, Bufonine in strength, and have the special fretwork, outside, of this species. I 
find no septo-maxillaries. 
The squamosals (sq.) have only a moderately broad supra-temporal part; it binds by 
an irregular edge on the parotics. The postorbital process (fig. 3) is a broad, rough, 
oblique part, whose depth is continued with little diminution to the end of the “ head” 
of the bone, which thus shows an Otilophine character. The “ handle” of the hammer 
lies deep, and is therefore smooth; it is narrower than the head, and is set on behind 
2 n 2 
