76 RHYNCHASPIS CLYPEATA. 



papillate toward the base. The tongue, two inches and three 

 fourths in length, is emarginate and finely papillate at the 

 base, fleshy, with a deep longitudinal groove, at first com- 

 pressed and narrow, then gradually expanded, with lateral 

 larnellse and bristles, its breadth toward the end one inch, 

 where it terminates abruptly, but has a median, thin, horny, 

 semicircular tip. The oesophagus is nine inches long, rather 

 narrow, its general w'idth being about five-twelfths. The 

 stomach is roundish, compressed, an inch and a half in length 

 and breadth, with very strong muscles, and radiated tendons ; 

 the epithelium dense, rugous, with two thick grinding plates. 

 The intestine is very long and narrow, being nine feet nine 

 inches in length, two-twelfths in breadth, beyond the middle 

 enlarging a little, until at the coeca it attains a breadth of 

 three-twelfths and a half. The coeca are four inches long, 

 very narrow at the base, gradually enlarging to three-twelfths- 

 and-a-half, narroAved but obtuse at the end; the rectum 

 three inches and a quarter in length. 



The trachea gradually enlarges from the breadth of two- 

 twelfths-and-a-half to that of four-twelfths, and is com- 

 posed of about an hundred rings, of which the lower are 

 broader. The inferior larynx has a rounded bony expan- 

 sion, of comparatively small size, on the left side. The 

 bronchi are comparatively large, with about thirty-five half 

 rings. 



The nostrils are rather small, elliptical, and pervious. 

 The eyes small, as are the ears. The legs are very short ; 

 the tibia bare for about four-twelfths of an inch ; the tarsus 

 much shorter than the outer toes, compressed, with about 

 fifteen small anterior scutella, and about ten in the outer 

 series, elsewhere reticulated with lozenge - shaped scales. * 

 The hind toe is very small, with ten scutella, and a nar- 

 row- free membrane ; the anterior toes are long and slender ; 

 the inner Avith a broad, tAvo-lobed, thin margin, and 

 only ten scutella, the basal phalanx being scaly ; the 

 middle toe with twenty-eight, extending to the base; the 

 outer with twenty scutella and numerous basal scales ; the 

 fourth toe a little shorter than the third ; the inter- 

 digital membranes reticulated, emarginate and crenato- 



