EUROPEAN DIPPER. 



51 



blunted at the point, and sometimes wedged ; -whereas in young 

 birds it is similar to that of a Thrush. For the same rea- 

 son, the claws are commonly worn at the point. The tarsus 

 has a single long plate and three inferior scutella in front, 

 the first toe eight, the second nine, the third twelve, the fourth 

 nine scutella. The oesophagus is of uniform diameter, very 

 narrow, two inches and three quarters in length, and having a 

 diameter of two-twelfths. The belt of proventricular glands is 

 half an inch long. The stomach is small, roundish, compress- 

 ed, half an inch long, seven and a half twelfths in breadth, 

 and four and a half twelfths in thickness ; its muscular coat 

 thick, with the tendons large, being two and a half twelfths in 

 diameter ; the cuticular lining soft and rugous. The intestine 

 is tw^elve inches long, its duodenal portion two twelfths and a 

 half in diameter ; it then gradually diminishes to a twelfth 

 and a half ; the coeca are generally two twelfths long, but vary, 

 and are often unequal ; the rectum enlarges from the com- 

 mencement, and the cloaca has a diameter of four twelfths and 

 a half.— See PL XIII, Fig. 1. 



The plumage is of ordinary length, rather compact, soft, 

 slightly glossed, very short on the fore part of the head. 

 The wings when closed extend one-third down the tail, and 

 when expanded are of a semi-ovate form, broad, rounded and 



