The ability of most birds to protract the upper mandible, and the structure of the skull which enables them to do so are responsible for common reference to the skull as "kinetic" (Beecher, 1951a:412; Fisher, 1955:175). The movement is effected by muscular action on a series of movable bones that exert their forward force on the upper mandible, which in turn swings on a horizontal hinge, the "naso-frontal hinge," at the base of the beak. The bone initiating the movement is the quadrate, which is hinged posteriorly by its otic process and which ordinarily swings up or down depending on the muscle or muscles being contracted at any given moment. The upward swing of the quadrate pushes the jugal bar, which is attached to its lateral tip, along its longitudinal axis, in an anterodorsal direction, and the force is transferred to the upper mandible, which is thereby elevated. A synergetic mechanism is simultaneously initiated by the same bone--the quadrate. Since the quadrate body articulates with the pterygoid, the upward movement forces the pterygoid to slide along a ridge in the ventral midline of the cranium, the sphenoidal rostrum, thus pushing the palatine forward and exerting an upward push on the upper mandible. In the columbids the quadrate has a bifurcated otic process that functions as the hinge. The posterior tips of the forks are situated almost vertically (one above the other) and the movement of the quadrate is not so much up and down, or vertical, as it is horizontal (fig. 12). When the quadrate moves medially the upper mandible is protracted; a lateral movement results in retraction. There is a slight, almost negligible, upward movement of the quadrate. The movements of the various bony elements were observed on a skull that had been made flexible by boiling in water for a minute as suggested by Beecher (1951a:412). Also in the columbids the naso-frontal hinge is not constructed in the same manner as it is in many other birds as there is not a simple hinge across the entire base of the beak. In fact, there is no true hinge at all in the area of the nasals, but those bones are extremely thin and they bend or flex under pressure. Actually, the hinge is double or divided. One part is on either side of the nasals. The hinges are situated at the posterodorsal tips of two thin processes of the maxillary bones and the appearance is not unlike that of half a span of a suspension bridge having the hinges at the tops of the towers. Several other species of birds share this type of hinge construction with columbids.