152 



THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S CHALLENGER. 



40. Evdyptes ehrysolophus, Brandt, 



>* >> 



47. Evdyptes chrysoeome, Forst., 



43. Pygosceles tceniatus, Peale, 



49. Sphmiscus magellanicus, Forst., 



/. Crypturi. 



50. Calodvomas elegans, D'Orb et Geoffr.. 



Falklands, 



The eggs of the Falkland Islands were nearly all presented to the Expedition by Mr Deans, of Stanley, 

 Falkland Islands 



■II.— NOTE ON THE GIZZARD AND OTHER ORGANS OF CAPPOPHAGA LA TRANS. 

 By A. H. GARROD, M.A., F.R.S., Prosector to the Zoological Society of London. 



(Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1878.) 



In the collection of birds preserved in spirit by H.M.S. Challenger is the body, after the skin 

 had been removed, of a single specimen of Garpophaga latrans, together with the gizzard of a second 

 individual of the same species, obtained at Kandavu, Fiji. These form the material for the present 

 communication. 



In his note-book Mr John Murray makes the following remarks on the species: 1 — "Stomach 

 contained the fruit of some tree unknown to me. The coat of the stomach had hard papilla-like 

 ossifications of a circular form, two or three rows. . . . These indurations are composed of a horny 

 substance," — from which it is seen that Mr Murray was the first to recognise the existence of the 

 strange arrangement to be here described. 



The thin-walled and capacious crop contained only one thing in its interior — a complete fruit, 

 which has been identified for me by Mr W. T. Thiselton Dyer, as that of Oncocarpus mticnsis. In the 

 gizzard was also found a portion of a second example of the same fruit. 



Oncocarpus vitiensis is a tree belonging to the natural order Anacardiacea', which, according to Dr 

 Seemann, 2 is " about 60 feet high, bearing large oblong leaves and a very curious corky fruit, some- 

 what resembling the seed of a walnut." The tree is included among those which are poisonous by 

 the Fijians; and its sap produces an intense itching of the skin when brought into contact with it, 

 whence the native name Kau Karo, or itch-wood. 



For the crushing of this very hard fruit a special anatomical modification of the gizzard-walls of 

 this Fruit-pigeon is developed, which is peculiarly interesting and tends to prove the plasticity of 

 organs when aberrant forces come into play. 



The gizzard is not developed to anything like the extent that it is in the Gallinse or Anseres, 



1 Vide Proc. Zool. Soc, 1877, p. 737. 2 Seemann's Mission to Viti, p. 334. 



