332 URIA GRYLLE. 



before, and of moderate size. The bill is shorter than the 

 head, straight, rather slender, tapering, compressed, acute ; 

 the upper mandible with the dorsal line declinatc and 

 straight, at the end slightly decurvate ; the nasal sinus 

 moderate, feathered, the sides convex beyond it. the edges 

 sharp and slightly inflexed, with a sinus near the tip, which 

 is deflected, narrow, blunted, with a semicircular edge ; the 

 lower mandible with the angle long and narrow, the dorsal 

 line ascending and straight, the sides nearly erect and 

 slightly convex, the edges sharp and inflexed, the tip acute ; 

 the gape-line straight. 



The palate is flat, with two papillate ridges and two 

 lateral series of papillae ; its anterior part concave, with five 

 prominent lines. The tongue is an inch and nine-twelfths 

 long, tapering, slender, trigonal, channelled toward the end, 

 pointed with a thin edge. The oesophagus, six inches and 

 three-fourths long, is three-fourths of an inch in w^idth, and 

 within the thorax dilates into a very wide sac, two inches 

 long, and an inch and four-twelfths in breadth ; its walls 

 thin ; the proventricular glandules forming a belt an inch 

 and a quarter in breadth. The stomach is rather large, 

 roundish, an inch and a half in length, an inch and a quarter 

 in breadth, with a moderately thick muscular coat, and 

 dense, plicate epithelium. The intestine is three feet long, 

 from four-twelfths to three-twelfths in width ; the cceca an 

 inch and a third in length, three-twelfths in width ; the 

 rectum two inches and a quarter long, with an elliptical 

 cloaca. 



The nostrils are sub-basal, linear, three-twelfths long, in 

 the lower part of the membrane, which forms a thin flap 

 above, and partially concealed by the feathers ; the eyes 

 small ; the aperture of the ear very small. The feet, placed 

 far behind, are very small ; the tibia feathered almost to the 

 joint ; the tarsus short, compressed, reticulate, but with an 

 anterior inner series of larger scales. The toes, three in 

 number, are rather small, scutellate, the lateral marginate ; 

 the inner Avitli about twenty scutella, the next with twenty- 

 eight, the outer longest, not including the claws, and with 

 about thirty scutella ; the membranes full. The claws are 



