182 ANTHUS PRATENSIS, 



The bill is straight, slender, broader than high at the base, 

 compressed towards the end. The upper mandible has its 

 dorsal outline slightly declinate at the base, then nearly straight, 

 towards the end very slightly declinato-areuate, the edges di- 

 rect, sharp, with a distinct notch close to the narrow, slightly 

 declinate tip. The lower mandible has the angle medial, the 

 back convex, the sides convex, the edges a little inflected and 

 sharp. Both mandibles are narrow and concave within, with 

 a prominent median line ; the palate is flat, with two ridges ; 

 the tongue very slender, half an inch long, emarginate and pa- 

 pillate at the base, grooved above, its tip slightly slit and 

 fringed. The oesophagus is two and a half inches long, with- 

 out dilatation, its average diameter a twelfth and a half; the 

 proventriculus is rather large, having a diameter of three - 

 twelfths, its glandules large, and oblong. The stomach is 

 seven-twelfths long, six-twelfths broad, compressed ; its mus- 

 cles distinct and strong, its tendons three-twelfths in breadth. 

 The intestine is seven and a half inches long, its diameter in 

 the duodenal portion a twelfth and a quarter. The coeca are 

 cylindrical, scarcely half a twelfth long, and a quarter of a 

 twelfth in diameter. The rectum is ten-twelfths long. 



The nostrils are oblongo-elliptical, three quarters of a twelfth 

 long, with a narrow, bare operculum. The aperture of the 

 eyes is a twelfth and a half in diameter ; the eyelids with two 

 rows of small rounded feathers. The ear is transversely ellip- 

 tical, two and a half twelfths in its greatest diameter. The 

 feet are of moderate length, and very slender. The tarsus 

 much compressed, anteriorly covered with seven long scutella, 

 posteriorly edged, with two plates and inferior rugse. The 

 outer toe is slightly shorter than the inner ; the first has eight, 

 the second nine, the third fourteen, the fourth eleven scutella. 

 The claws are extremely compressed, slightly 

 arched ; that of the hind toe extremely at- 

 tenuated, curved in about the eighth of a 

 Fig. 143. circle, longer than the first joint, and, when 



the toes are brought together, extending beyond the point of 

 that of the middle toe. 



The plumage is soft, slightly glossed ; the feathers ovate, 



