170 LAGOrUS SCOTICUS. 



Male. — The well-kno\\Ti " Red Grouse " is a strong, full- 

 bodied bird, having a short stout neck, a rather small head, 

 broad rounded wings, a short tail, and legs of moderate length, 

 which, with the toes, are feathered. 



The bill is short, broader than high, a little curved ; the up- 

 per mandible has the ridge indistinct and rounded, the sides 

 convex, the edges inclinate, sharp, and overlapping, the tip 

 broadish, rounded, and sharp-edged ; the lower mandible con- 

 siderably shorter, its back broadly convex, the edges inflected, 

 the tiji rounded. The upper mandible is internally concave, 

 with a prominent central fleshy ridge ; the lower with a deep 

 groove and two prominent lines. The palate flat, w^th trans- 

 verse series of j^apilla?, and anteriorly with four lines converg- 

 ing forwards. The oesophagus, Plate VI, Fig. 1, a, ^, c^ c?, ^, 

 measured from the base of the tongue to the stomach, is six 

 and a half inches long, its diameter about four-twelfths of an 

 inch. Anterior to the furcula, it is expanded into a large 

 membranous bag, of a depressed roundish form, ^, r7, ^, three 

 inches in diameter, its aj^erture about an inch in length. The 

 proventricular portion. Fig. 3, 5, is bulbiform, with a diameter 

 of three-quarters of an inch. The mouth is abundantly sup- 

 plied with a mucous fluid from the crypts in the angle of the 

 lower jaw, on the sides of the tongue and at its base ; the upper 

 part of the oesophagus is also covered with cr}^3ts, as is the crop 

 at its entrance only ; the inner coat of the intra -thoracic portion 

 is raised into longitudinal folds, and plentifully supplied with 

 mucus ; the proventricular glands. Fig. 4, ^, are oblong, three- 

 twelfths of an inch in length. The stomach. Fig. 3, ^, ^, ^,/, g^ 

 is a powerful gizzard, of a roundish subrhomboidal form, an 

 inch and ten-twelfths in its greatest diameter ; its lateral mus- 

 cles, f/, ^, extremely thick, their outer fibres converging to form 

 a large tendon, /, on each side, under which are inserted the 

 tendinous fibres of the lower muscle, g ; and on the upper part 

 is a slight j^yloric sac, c. The middle coat, g^ is thin and tough, 

 and impressed with the rugae of the inner, /^, which is fibroso- 

 cartilaginous, longitudinally rugous, the rugae on the sides op- 

 posite the tendons, in the fundus, and in the cardiac sac, crossed 

 by others. The intestine, Fig. 1, g^ h^ e, j^ is forty inches long ; 



