320 



NATURAL SCIENCE 



[November 



led Garrod " to doubt the correctness of Dr Murie's inference, that 

 because the neck of Eupodotis australis becomes distended much 

 during the sexual season, therefore there is a gular pouch." The next 

 year this bird died and was dissected by Garrod. As a result, " there 

 was no gular pouch. There was no sublingual orifice. . . . How 

 unsafe therefore is it to infer that because the neck distends and 

 depends during the ' show-off,' there must be a sublingual pouch. 

 It is quite possible that two effects, very similar in appearance, in 

 closely allied birds, may be the result of different mechanisms." A 

 careful investigation showed that the cause of the inflation of the 



Fig. 4. — The oesophagus and trachea of the specimen Eupodotis australis here described. 

 The oesophagus is much dilated, and, like that of the Pouter Pigeon, can be distended 

 with air by the living bird. No trace of a pouch or crop is to be seen (after Garrod). 



neck in this case was due to a highly extensible oesophagus. " Be- 

 fore dissection, by filling its cavity with air, the lower portion of 

 the dilated oesophagus protruded downwards considerably in front of 

 the symphysis furculae, and formed the depending portion of the sac 

 which was so conspicuous in the living animal." The two woodcuts 

 (figs. 3 and 4) kindly lent by Mr Sclater for the present paper, are 

 taken from Garrod's original paper. 



Fig. 5 represents a dissection which the writer has just made of 

 the gular pouch of an adult male till recently living in the Gardens 

 of the Zoological Society ; and which will shortly be exhibited in 



