| OCR Text |
Show 430 PROF. HUXLEY ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. [Apr. 1 1, Rhyncheea, Limosa, Tringa, Machetes, Phalaropus, Strepsilas, Totanus, Himantopus. The Cranes almost always lack basipterygoid processes and the corresponding facets upon the pterygoids, the only exception I have met with being Grus antigone. The Rails are always devoid of basipterygoid processes. In other points the palates of these birds, of Eurypyga, of the Kagu, of Psophia, and of Otis are similar to that of the Plover. The angle of the mandible, however, is obliquely truncated, and not produced into an upwardly curved process. In the Gulls, the Divers, the Grebes, the Auks, and the Penguins, the bones which form the roof of the mouth have the same general arrangement and form as in the Plovers. But they are devoid of basipterygoid processes; and in the Penguins the pterygoids become much flattened from above downwards. Fig. 10. Fig. 11, Alca torda. Larus rissa. Views of the inferior aspect of the skull in Alca torda (fig. 10) and Larus rissa (fig. 11), of the size of nature. The letters have the same signification as in the figures of Charadrius, a comparison with which will bring out the fundamental resemblance of the three skulls better than a description can do. But the Procellariidee differ from the families which have just been enumerated in the great expansion of the maxillo-palatines, |
