LONG-SNOUTED TARSIPES. 
349 
of the skull, which is bounded on either side by the auditory 
bulloe, is continued forwards and joins the post-palatine 
openings: the anterior half of this channel, which is much 
contracted, is bounded by two long and thin plates of bone, 
which appertain chiefly to the anterior sphenoid ; and from 
about the middle of these plates, a thin process appears to 
have been thrown across the valley, but it is partly broken in 
the skull before me ; this process no doubt formed the 
posterior boundary of the palate, and is a portion of the 
palatine bone ; in front of it, a longitudinal ridge forms the 
separation of the two post-palatine openings. The anterior 
root of the zygoma is perfectly hollow, and a small perfora¬ 
tion leads into it from the under side. The lower jaw is 
composed of two very slender, and almost straight rami, and 
presents neither angular portion nor coronoid process: they 
converge and meet in front, but are by no means firmly 
attached to that part, and they terminate posteriorly in a 
small semicircular condyle: the hinder third of the ramus 
is divided by a long narrow perforation into an upper and 
a lower thin branch : these branches meet behind at a short 
distance from the condyle, and at the point where they join 
in front we can perceive a faint trace of the coronoid process, 
indicated by the ramus of the jaw being slightly expanded in 
the vertical direction at that part. 
Of cervical vertebra, I find the usual number: the atlas vertebra 
has the lower boundary of the ring formed by a thin cartilage, 
in the middle of which a minute transverse ossicle represents 
the body of the vertebra. The vertebra dentata has a mode¬ 
rately developed spine. The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth 
cervical vertebra are totally destitute of spinous process ; the 
seventh has a small spine. The dorsal vertebra are thirteen 
in number, and are provided with slender, and but moderately 
elevated spinous processes; these processes, from the first to 
the eighth, are directed obliquely backwards; the remaining 
processes of the dorsal vertebra, as well as those of the 
lumbar and sacral vertebrae, are upright. The ribs are 
compressed, and slender. The sternum is composed of six 
long and slender bones. There are five lumbar vertebra, each 
of which has a moderately developed transverse, and a short 
