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Show 1877.] ANATOMY OF PASSERINE BIRDS. 449 opportunity of examining. And the length of the first primary among the remiges tells the same tale. The order Passeres falls, therefore, into two sections to start with :- those with the hallux not free, the Eurylaimidse ; and those with the hallux independently movable. This latter suborder may be again divided up in the manner suggested in Part I. of this communication I much regret that, not having been able, as yet, to obtain any of the Eurylaimidse in spirit, I have not had an opportunity of making out the arrangement of the tensor patagii brevis muscle at its insertion. From skins, however, I have been able to procure the skulls, with the palates uninjured, of Euryleemus ochromelas, Cymbirhynchus macrorhynchus, and Calyptomena viridis. The first and last of these are figured here (figs. 1 & 2), Cymbirhynchus agreeing very closely with Euryleemus. The truly Passerine ?ig. 1 | | H H fiH*HH i ; V| **gj w,*^l • Fig. 1. Palatal view of skull of Euryleemus ochromelas. Fig. 2. Palatal view of skull of Calyptomena viridis. nature of the vomer at its anterior end, with the alinasal cartilages ossified in connexion with them, is undoubted; at the same time the more than usually transverse and lengthy maxillo-palatines with their unexpanded knobbed ends are worthy of notice. Calyptomena is seen to resemble the other genera in this latter point, though the vomer is much narrower throughout. The feeble development of the postero-external or "transpalatine" portions of the palatine bones, as termed by Mr. Parker, is to be seen in both the genera. Turning to a different subject, I desire to direct attention to a peculiarity in the skulls of some of the Dendrocolaptidse among the Tracheophone Passeres, which has, in m y opinion, some significance in the arrangement of the genera of that family. From an examination of Furnarius rufus, Leptasthenura cegitha-loides, Synallaxis frontalis, Sclerurus caudacutus, and Phlceocryptes melanops, I find that these birds present features in the conformation of their nasal bones not present in Conopophaga aurita, Dendro- 1 P. Z. S. 1876, p. 518. P R O C ZOOL. Soc-1877, No. XXIX. 29 |