CRESTED GREBE. 251 



sides ; the edges sharp and inflected, the tip narrow but rather 

 obtuse. The lower mandible has the intercrural space very 

 long and narrow, the crural outline straight, the dorsal line 

 ascending and straight, the sides convex, the edges sharp and 

 inclinate, the tip narrow and somewhat obtuse. 



Internally the upper mandible presents a rather deep and 

 narrow channel, with a lateral groove on each side in its 

 whole length, and anteriorly two other grooves. The lower 

 mandible presents a still deeper and narrower channel. The 

 tongue, an inch and two-thirds in length, is very slender^ 

 slightly emarginate, and papillate at the base, trigonal, a 

 little concave above, tapering to a slit point. The oesophagus, 

 which is twelve inches in length, is ten-twelfths in width at 

 the upper part, contracts to six -twelfths as it enters the thorax, 

 then enlarges to nine-twelfths ; its walls rather thick, and its 

 inner coat longitudinally plicate. The proventriculus is ovate, 

 an inch and two-thirds in breadth, with very strong muscular 

 fibres and cylindrical glandules, three-twelfths long, and 

 nearly one-twelfth in breadth. The stomach is large, of a 

 roundish compressed form, two inches four - twelfths in 

 breadth; its muscular coat very thick, but composed of single 

 fasciculi, not separated into distinct muscles, the tendons 

 roundish, and half an inch in diameter ; the cuticular lining 

 very thick, moderately dense, and rugous. There is a rather 

 large roundish pyloric lobe, and the pylorus has a thickened 

 margin, but no valves. The intestine, which is forty-three 

 inches long, is half an inch wide in its duodenal portion, 

 then gradually contracts to four-twelfths, but enlarges to five- 

 twelfths near the cceca, which come ofi" at the distance of 

 three inches from the extremity, and are an inch and a half 

 in length, narrow at first, enlarged to three-twelfths near the 

 end, with their extremity rounded. The rectum is half an 

 inch in width, and enlarges into a globular cloaca, nearly two 

 inches in diameter. 



The eyes are small, their aperture three-twelfths. The 

 nostrils linear-oblong, pervious, three-twelfths-and-a-quarter 

 in length, sub-basal. The aperture of the ear, which is 

 round, measures only one-twelfth across, being so small as to 

 be with difficulty found. The feet being placed at the poste- 



