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Show 1885.] TROCHILID.E, CAPRI MULGID.'E, AND CYPSELID.E. 895 Thus we see that the American genus Chordediles approaches Nyctibius in this particular. Returning to the basal view, again, of the former bird (fig. 4, Plate LIX.), we find that the palatines are very broad, flat, and smooth, lying mostly in the horizontal plane. Their posteroexternal angles are rounded, while their ascending processes are just sufficiently pronounced to afford a low crest behind to unite with the vomer. Anteriorly, their narrow and ribbon-like extremities can be traced to the apex of the superior mandible (fig. 4). The ptergyoids are much flattened from above downwards, while their anterior ends are somewhat dilated. Beneath this latter portion we find each articulating with the basisphenoidal facet. Quite an interval separates the points where they articulate with the palatines, and the joints are very close ones, the palatines themselves being anchylosed together at their heads. The case is different in Nuttall's Whippoorwill, where an appreciable interval separates the palatine heads, and these really articulate with the rostrum, the vomer being found immediately beyond this minute point of separation of the palatines. In this bird, too, these last-named bones are not nearly so much spread out as they are in the Night-hawks, and their postero-external angles are quite pointed. In speaking of the skull of Steatornis, the lamented Garrod says, a Fig. C. " b Skull of Steatornis. a, base ; b, superior surface. » In the skulls the lacrymal bones are not developed as they are in the Strigidaa and Caprimulgidse. The palate M strongly |
