WOOD GROUSE. 139 



beyond the nostrils, towards the end declinato-convex, the 

 ridge convex, as are the sides, the edges a little inclined and 

 sharp, the tip rounded and sharp- edged ; the lower mandible 

 has the angle rounded, the dorsal line slightly concave, the 

 back very broad, the sides very convex, the edges inflected, 

 arched, strong, and very thick. 



The mandibles are deeply concave internally, the upper with 

 a prominent central line, the lower with a central groove and 

 two prominent lines. The aperture of the posterior nares is 

 narrow, with papillate edges ; the palate in its vicinity covered 

 with transverse series of papillse. The tongue is triangular, 

 acute, flat above, horny beneath, an inch and three and a half 

 twelfths long. The oesophagus is fourteen inches and a half 

 long ; its general diameter one inch ; but the pharynx dila- 

 table to two inches. The crop, which has an orifice of two 

 inches in length, commencing at the distance of seven inches 

 and a half from the tongue, is capable of being inflated to a 

 diameter of seven inches. The proventriculus is two inches 

 long, an inch and a quarter in diameter, its glands oblong and 

 lobulated. The gizzard is obliquely elliptical, its transverse 

 muscles extremely large, that of the left side thicker ; the 

 longest diameter three inches and a quarter ; the lower muscle 

 prominent, of moderate thickness ; the cuticular lining thick 

 and longitudinally rugous. The pylorus is without a valvu- 

 lar apparatus, and lies in a groove between the upper edge 

 of the right lateral muscle and the proventricular lobe. The 

 intestine is eighty-nine and a half inches long ; the duodenum 

 being thirteen and a half; from the entrance of the gall duct 

 to the coeca sixty-six ; the rectum ten. The duodenum has a 

 diameter of about four-twelfths, the rest of the intestine gene- 

 rally seven-twelfths ; the rectum one half. The coeca, which 

 are thirty-nine and a half inches long, are for the first seven 

 inches narrow, their diameter being from three to four twelfths ; 

 then enlarged, their greatest diameter ten-twelfths ; they are 

 marked internally with eight longitudinal ridges. The rectum 

 is nearly uniform in diameter, and not much wider than the 

 rest of the intestine. 



The nostrils are oblong, and small, being four-twelfths long. 



