| OCR Text |
Show 292 MR. F. E. BEDDARD ON THE [Feb. 16, Brandt has pointed out that Fregatal, unlike other Steganopodes but like certain Petrels &c, has an " ossiculum lacrymo-pala-tinum." In the lacrymal of one side of m y specimen of Phaethon I found a minute separate ossification at the end of that bone, which may be regarded as the homologue of the os uncinatum as it is termed by several authors. Fij?. 3. Phaethon : palatal aspect of skull. Vo., vomer; Mxp., maxillo-palatines. The lacrymal of Phaethon is more like that of Fregata than of any other Steganopode, in that it is not ankylosed above with the frontal. The skull of Phaethon, however, differs from that of Fregata as of all Steganopodes in the pervious nostrils, in the absence of a groove running from the nostril towards the end of the beak, and in the presence of a considerable foramen towards the middle of each ramus of the lower jaw, as in Otis, Eudromlas, (Edicnemus, &c. So different are the skull characters of Phaethon from those of the typical Steganopodes, that, were it not for Fregata, the bird ' S,l?a7£e mentionecl (in a footnote, as not germane to the general argument) that Fregata possesses rudiments, ankylosed to the jugal, of the ossiculum supra-jugale of the Cormorant and perhaps of Sula, noted in those Birds by |
