| OCR Text |
Show 1867.] PROF. HUXLEY ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 443 long, and for three-fourths of their length greatly flattened from side to side, with more or less notched, or festooned, posterior free edges. Behind the posterior nares each palatine bone sends off a horizontal plate, which unites with its fellow for a considerable distance. In front of this plate the palatine bones become first rounded and then flattened from above downwards, and, broadening out, articulate by transversely elongated heads with fossae in the posterior margins of the floor of the rostrum. Fig. 25. Pmx Under view of the skull of Cacatua galerita. Pmx, Mxp, Pl, Pt, as before. S. The ossified septum narium. a. The joint between the palatine and the rostrum, b. That between the jugal bone and the rostrum, c. The joint between the rostrum and the frontal bones. In the Musophagidee (Musophaga and Schizorhis) there are no basipterygoid processes. I have not seen the vomer; so that it is probably very small and readily detached. The palatines are considerably elongated, and their posterior external regions rounded off as in the Owls, Pigeons, and Phasianidee. The two spongy maxillo-palatines meet in the middle line; and in these characters, as in the form of the beak, the Musophagidee present a certain resemblance to the Owls. |
