| OCR Text |
Show 388 MR. W. A. FORBES ON T H E [May 4, As regards this part of the structure of Philepitta, I only wish remark on and give a figure of the palate, extracted from a skin of P. castanea by Prof. Garrod, M . Milne-Edwards's figure of this (pl. 112. fig. 2a) being rather indistinct in some important points. As will at once be seen, the vomer is truly Passerine, being split behind and truncated in front; to its outer and anterior angles are articulated two small nodules of bone, probably corresponding to the " septo-maxillaries " of Prof. Parker. The maxillo-palatines are slender, long, recurved apically, and pointed backwards; the transpalatines are distinct and slightly curved inwardly, and the palatines tend to diverge behind. In Pitta (cyanura) the vomer is proportionally broader, the maxillo-palatines are much shorter and broader and more transversely directed, and the palatines are nearly parallel to each other throughout \ In the Euryleemidee'1 the maxillo-palatines, though slender, are nearly transverse to the axis of the skull, and the " transpalatines " tend to become obsolete. Fig. 1. Palate of Philepitta castanea (nat. size). Judging from M. Milne-Edwards's figure (/. c. pl. 112. fig. 3), manubrium sterni is but slightly bifid, therein approaching that of the Euryleemidee. As regards other points, in its pterylosis Philepitta, which was one of the few important forms unexamined by Nitzsch, is perfectly Passerine. There is a longish oval ephippial saddle, with a large space, much as in some of the Euryleemidee (vide supra, p. 381); in Pitta, according to Nitzsch, the saddle is undivided. But Philepitta differs from the Euryleemidee, and agrees with all other Passeres, in the absence of any vinculum in the deep plantar tendons, as was ascertained by Prof. Garrod from the examination of a skin, and recorded by him in M S . 1 Cf. Prof. Parker's fig. of Pitta melanocephala, Trans. Zool. Soc. ix. pl. lvi. figs. 6, 7. In this species the " transpalatine " processes are far less developed than in P. cyanura. - Figures of the palates of Euryleemus ochromelas and Calyptomena viridis are given in Prof. Garrod's paper, P. Z. S. 1877, p. 449. |
