| OCR Text |
Show 432 PROF. HUXLEY ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. [Apr. 11, Among the Gallinaceous Birds, the Phasianidee, Turnicidee, and Pteroclidce all have basipterygoid processes, which are situated upon the rostrum, and take the form of sessile, oval, articular facets for the pterygoid bones. The palatine bones have long and slender anterior processes, and completely rounded-off postero-external angles. They have generally small, and sometimes almost obsolete, maxillo-palatines, and very imperfectly developed vomers, so that the vomero-palatine clefts are wide and, usually, almost uninterrupted, throughout their length, which is, relatively, very considerable. The angle of the mandible is prolonged and bent upwards, sometimes, as in Tetrao, acquiring a prodigious length. Fig. 14. Under view of the skull of Tetrao uroqallus. From a specimen belonging to W . K. Parker, Esq., F.R.S. The letters as before. In the Megapodidee (e. g. Talegalla) the maxillo-palatines take the form of thin plates tapering to their free ends, which pass inwards and then, before they reach one another, bend back at a right angle. |
