Zoological Society. *77 



is permanently open for the space of a line, so that the chords 

 cannot be brought into mutual apposition. 



The modifications of the organs of deglutition accompanying this 

 open condition of the fissure leading into the windpipe are very re- 

 markable, and unlike any of the few deviations from the ordinary 

 structures of the fauces and glottis hitherto noticed by anatomists 

 in other animals (as in the Elephant, Camels, Cetacea and certain 

 Rodentia, &c). 



On looking down the mouth into the fauces the cavity appears to 

 be as completely closed as in the Capibara ; but instead of narrowing 

 in an infundibular form to a small circular depression, it is termi- 

 nated by a transverse slit through which projects a soft, rounded, 

 valvular ridge, formed by the broad superior margin of the epiglottis, 

 which is folded down upon itself at that part. The surface of the 

 fauces is broken by large risings and depressions, or is coarsely 

 corrugated. 



At the posterior part of the soft palate there is an oval glandular 

 body about one inch in long diameter. 



The tonsils are well-developed glands communicating with the 

 fauces by a single wide opening, or fossa, and thus exhibiting a 

 higher type of structure than they present in the human subject, 

 where the mucous follicles terminate by several separate apertures. 

 They are two inches in length and one in breadth. 



Mr. Owen then proceeded to read the first part of a paper on 

 the Anatomy of the Apteryx ; the body of that bird having recently 

 been presented to the Society's Museum by the Earl of Derby. The 

 results of the anatomical examination, communicated to the Meeting 

 on this occasion, embrace a detailed description of the parts con- 

 nected with the digestive apparatus. 



Commencing with the beak, Mr. Owen notices the general super- 

 ficial resemblance which it bears to that of the Curlew and Ibis, 

 though it differs essentially from this organ in the slender-billed 

 waders, by having the perforations of the nostrils near the apex, 

 and the base covered with a cere. The cere terminates anteriorly 

 in a concave or lunated curve, resembling that of the Rhea. Two 

 narrow grooves extend from the angles or cresses of the cere along 

 each side of the mandible, the upper groove being continued to the 

 truncated extremity of the mandible, the lower one leading into the 

 external nostril, which forms, as it were, the dilated termination of 

 the groove, and this occupies a position of which there is no other 

 known example throughout the class of birds. 



The cere was about an inch in length, furnished at its sides with 

 Ann, Nat. Hist. Vol. 2. No. 11. Jan. 1839. 2 c 



