MuRiE. — Oil Hybridism of Fowl and Woodhcn. 345 



the presence of spai'se wiry neck- and loin-hackles, by sixteen 

 strong quilled tail-feathers, and twenty-six wing-feathers, the 

 eleventh being relatively slender. The feather-tracts cor- 

 responded to those of Gallus, as given by Nitzsch,''' the contour- 

 feathering possessing very downy barbules. Twelve weak 

 short tail-feathers and twenty-two wing-feathers are the usual 

 complement in the Ballidce, and their contour-feathers possess 

 more filiform and less downy barbules. 



With regard to the viscera, the presence of a large and 

 capacious crop is of significance, inasmuch as this is a true 

 galline feature ; such oesophagal inflation being characteristi- 

 cally absent in the Ballidce. 



A proventriculus, a stout muscular gizzard, a pair of long 

 capacious coeca, and the general structure of the intestinal 

 tract, bore resemblances to those extant in the genus Gallus, 

 the viscera of a fresh fowl having been compared with them 

 side by side. But, as these characters are shared by the rails, 

 it is difficult to define precise comparative differences where 

 the sizes of the birds are unequal — unless it may be that in the 

 supposed hybrid a wider terminal sacculation of the coeca be 

 instanced. 



The contents of the crop and gizzard consisted chiefly of a 

 considerable-sized mass of matted vegetable matter, along 

 with grumous material of a semi-digested nature, and particles 

 of gravel. A closer examination showed that the bulk of the 

 vegetable substance was made up of fibres of grasses, some 

 with minutely-serrated margin. Intermingled among the con- 

 torted and woven-together grass-fibre were remnants of small 

 leaves, several distinctly hirsute. There was no grain what- 

 ever, and of seeds I only recognised one or two — black, smooth, 

 shiny ones, less than a split-pea in size. Some other irregu- 

 larly-shaped soft particles arrested my attention, and proved 

 to be partly-digested cartilage or gristly stuff. Of other animal 

 material I detected an insect, in the presence of a tiny portion 

 of the elytra of a lustrous beetle. There w^as a scarcity of 

 sand among the gravel. The latter was made up of irregular 

 fragments of rock, well rubbed — viz., of pure quartz, quartzite 

 rock, fine-grained grey granite, and agglutinated sand-grains 

 or scoriae, each more or less easily recognisable. 



The nature of the food thus showed that the bird was a 

 ravenous feeder, and not an inmate of a farm-yard. Seeds, 

 pulpy fruits, or other garbage not being to hand, it doubtless 

 gladly availed itself of coarser, less nutritious fare. Thus, 

 probably, may the lean condition of the body, already men- 

 tioned, be accounted for. 



Of the mouth -parts, the contour and sculpture of the 



* " Pterylography," Engl. Transl., Eay Soc, p. 115. 



