* 
396 MR. W. K. PARKER OK THE SKELETOH 
bend inwards. Exactly right and left of the bowl we see the regularly oval suborbital 
fenestrse ( s.o.f. ), each about half as large as the bowl, and having its long axis 
parallel with that of the skull. The front part of the skull is elegantly ox-faced; 
the bovicorn outgrowths are the soft prepalatine bars ( pr.pa .); they are almost as 
long as the common palato-trabecular bar next behind them, and their length and 
distance apart are about equal. They have, hung about them, four pairs of lesser 
horns, three pairs acute, and the fourth double and cervicorn; these are the carti¬ 
lages of the barbels ( n.bb ., o.bb.). The rest of the face is a kind of lattice work, ending 
behind in free cervicorn processes. The second median element of the skull—the front 
“ intertrabecula ” ( a.i.tr .)—is spindle-shaped and compressed ; it is composed of hard 
cartilage, as in Myxine; it overlies the ethmoid in its hind half, and the nasal 
sac lies over it. The lower margin of the palato-facial growth is convex where the 
great prepalatine “ horn ” grows out, then concave, but is obliquely descending in the 
orbital region ; the deepest part of the palato-quadrate tract is directly below the 
middle of the auditory capsule, and here the quadrate condyle should be found; there 
is none, and no mandibular rod. The lower edge of the cartilage remains soft 
(Plate 16, fig. 1, q.), and so also does the pedicle of the suspensorium (pd.) ; but 
there is no soft cartilage under the fore part of the subocular fenestra ( s.o.f. ) such as 
we saw in Myxine (Plates 9 and 10). The second lateral fenestra (If 2 .) is nearly 
twice the size of the one in front of it; it is heart-shaped, having a round process 
of cartilage growing into its hind margin. A second soft “pedicle,” the head of the 
hyomandibular ( hm .), is seen under the hind part of the auditory capsules; between 
these there is a small upper fenestra (Plate 17, fig. 1, m.hyf. ), whose lower boundary is a 
thick bar of hard cartilage ( m.hy .), the shoulder of the hyomandibular (hm.). The fore 
part of this bar is continuous with the suspensorium (its metapterygoid region), whilst, 
behind, it ends in soft cartilage, the inter-hyal region (i.hy.). The upper part of the 
hyomandibular in osseous Fishes is mostly very broad, projecting over the short free 
metapterygoid in front, and growing backwards as the “ opercular process.” This upper 
hyoid region finishes the second fenestra, behind, sending inwards a round lobe, and being 
also sublobate behind in three places. Below and above, the small lobes of hard carti¬ 
lage pass into the soft kind, above in the inter-hyal region, and below, in the symplectic 
(sy.). From the inter-hyal region the descending epi-cerato hyal band, two-thirds the 
width of the hard band in front, descends over the hinder or third or largest fenestra (If 3 -), 
the hinder half of which is enclosed by the arcuate and spiked 1st epi-branchial 
( e.br k) “ There is a notch, below, between the arrested quadrate ( q.) and the lower part 
of the symplectic region (sy.) The cartilage is all soft here, and above the junction of 
the two kinds the symplectic region sends a spur backwards partly filling in the lower 
part of the space. The long hyoid bar (e.hy., c.hy.) is sigmoid above, and then slants 
forwards and downwards to its hypo-liyal region ( h.hy.), where it is continuous with the 
basal bar (b.hy b .). The lower boundary of the large posterior membranous space (/./ 3 .) is 
* See Plate 17, fig. 1 ; in fig. 2, and in Plate 16, fig. 1, this part is lettered c.br. by mistake. 
