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Show 932 PROF. A. H. GARROD ON INDICATOR MAJOR. [Nov. 19, is but little different from that of the Capitonidae. The palate of Megaleema asiatica is described and figured by Professor Parker in the ' Transactions of the Linnean Society' **. It is truncated in front and strongly bifid, the cornua running forward to blend with the maxillo-palatines. These last-named inward-directed processes of the maxillary bones blend with the mid-nasal septum in some Fig. 1. Palate of Indicator. specimens of Megaleema asiatica, whilst in others they remain free from one another, separated by an inconsiderable interval. In Pogonorhynchus bidentatus and Tetragonops ramphastinus they completely blend across the middle line, without the nasal median septum persisting in front of the junction. So these two last-named species, and most probably all the species of the genera, are genuinely desmognathous. The point in which the truncated vomer of the Capitonidae most differs from that of the order Passeres, is that in the former the truncation occurs behind the line joining the posterior angles of the maxillo-palatines, whilst in the latter the truncation occurs some way in front of the same transverse line. The limbs of the forked vomer in the Capitonidae run forward to meet the posterior angles of the maxillo-palatines ; in the Passeres they continue, often in cartilage alone, to the nasal labyrinth. 1 2nd series, Zoology, vol. i. p. 122, and pl. 23. |